First Urban Ropeway in India

Varanasi is a city in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and, as the spiritual capital of India with over 2’000 temples, attracts countless pilgrims and tourists who bathe in the holy water of the river Ganges and perform rituals here.

On behalf of National Highways Logistics Management Ltd, Bartholet Maschinenbau AG, together with Vishwa Samudra Engineering, will commission India's first urban cable car here in 2025, which will drastically reduce the travel time between the main train station and Godowalia Chowk station, one of the busiest routes.

This ropeway project with a total length of 3,660 meters is designed for a maximum capacity of 3’000 passengers per hour and direction. The approximately 150 panorama cabins designed by Porsche Design Studio with 10 seats connect the 5 stations and sometimes hover up to 40 meters above the existing buildings of Varanasi.

Large cities around the world are mired in traffic chaos every day. Cable cars alone cannot solve the congestion problem, but urban cable car concepts are on the rise worldwide. When used cleverly, cable cars offer various advantages over conventional local transport. They do not compete with road or rail, but complement them in a meaningful way and can be integrated relatively easily into the existing local public transport system. The use of cable cars should definitely be examined for future transport policy master plans in cities.