Gulmarg Gondola in Gulmarg

Gulmarg

Gulmarg is a town, a hill station and a notified area committee in Baramula district in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.-Geography:Gulmarg is located 52 km from Srinagar. It is located at . It has an average elevation of .-Demographics:...

, Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...

 is the world's second highest operating cable car since the closure in 2008 of the Mérida cable car

Mérida cable car

The Mérida Cable Car was the world's highest cable car. Its base is located in the Venezuelan city of Mérida at an altitude of , and its terminus is on Pico Espejo, at . The whole system was opened to the public in 1960; it was closed indefinitely in 2008, with a declaration that it had reached...

in Venezuela.
Gulmarg boasts Asia's highest and longest cable car project, the Gulmarg Gondola. The two-stage ropeway ferries about 600 people per hour to and from Kongdoori Mountain, a shoulder of nearby Afarwat Peak (4200 m (13,780 ft)). The ropeway project is a joint venture of the Jammu and Kashmir government and French firm Pomagalski. The first stage transfers from the Gulmarg resort at 2600 m (8,530 ft) to Kongdoori Station in the bowl-shaped Kongdori valley. The second stage of the ropeway, which has 36 cabins and 18 towers, takes skiers to a height of 3747 m (12,293 ft) on Kongdoori Mountain, a shoulder of nearby Afarwat Peak (4200 m (13,780 ft)). The second stage was completed in a record time of about two years at a cost of 110,000,000 Indian Rupees (ie some US$2.3 million) and opened on May 28, 2005. The French company had also built the first phase of the gondola project, connecting Gulmarg to Kongdoori, in 1998.