The Gulmarg Gondola — Jammu and Kashmir's flagship tourism showpiece and Asia's highest ropeway at roughly 13,000 feet — malfunctioned on M...

The Gulmarg Gondola — Jammu and Kashmir's flagship tourism showpiece and Asia's highest ropeway at roughly 13,000 feet — malfunctioned on May 25, leaving some 300 tourists hanging mid-air in 65 cabins, some up to 500 feet above the ground, as heavy rain swept through the mountains. The rescue operation ran for seven hours and required the NDRF, SDRF, the Army's Chinar Corps, and the J&K Police to be simultaneously deployed. The gondola was subsequently shut for two days. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah announced an inquiry into any lapses, a formulation that leaves open the theoretical possibility that dangling 300 tourists in the rain for seven hours at 13,000 feet was actually fine. The Gondola had previously carried approximately one crore visitors and is frequently described in tourism brochures as a jewel of Indian mountain tourism, a designation that presumably still applies.