Cable cars to connect places in Kohima

New Delhi, Nov 13: Cable cars could connect parts of Nagaland capital Kohima, ferrying people from one place to the other in the city.

The project will be implemented in association with a local partner under the guidance of architect Alfredo Brillembourg, who chairs architecture and urban design at the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich.

“We are trying to facilitate commuting for the people of Kohima with this project. In an hour’s duration cable cars can carry upto 1,200 people in a single direction,” Brillembourg told IANS in an interview.

Brillembourg said these cable cars will serve as the metro rails of other cities. 

In 2011, the state government asked the partners to conduct a feasibility study of the project. 

"The state government (Nagaland) had been extremely helpful regarding the project. They have seen it and now it is lying with the central government for funds approval," he added.

Satish Pathania of Leading Edge Adventures & Airparks, a developer in regional airlines, air taxi, adventure tourism and metro cable, is the local partner for the project.

Brillembourg said he has also carried out a study in a fishermen’s village in Mumbai. Talking about the scattered slums in the financial hub of India, Brillembourg said he did not favour tall vertical structures for Mumbai slums as they will rob the people of sunlight and air.

He said going vertical by one or two floors would be fine. "By going up one or two floors more, Mumbai can attain the same densities as Paris."

 Brillembourg, who is here to attend a symposium on architecture, design and engineering organised by the Embassy of Switzerland, claimed that he had been approached by other Indian states to execute projects. 

  "These exchanges by Swiss architects are not meant for replicating Swiss architecture but about adapting the planning from there," said Swiss Ambassador to India Linus von Castelmur. "Planning tools by various architects play an important role."