PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa caretaker government has directed inspection of all chairlifts installed in the province and conduct their safety audit after the cable car incident in Battagram.
The directives from the provincial government came just hours after the Pakistan Army’s special unit and zipline experts rescued eight people, including six school boys, trapped for hours in a stricken cable car high above a remote valley in Allai Tehsil.
The daring rescue began with a helicopter plucking one child in the air to safety after almost 12 hours as daylight faded, but the chopper was forced back to the base due to nightfall.
Then rescuers used a cable, to keep the gondola from plunging into the valley, as a zipline to rescue the rest of those stranded late into Tuesday night.
According to fresh directives issued to all the deputy commissioners in KP, they are tasked to carry out a safety audit of chairlifts within their jurisdictions.
Immediate checking of chairlifts at all commercial, domestic and recreational places should be carried out by the provincial government, stated the advisory, adding that inspection of cable cars installed over rivers and canals should also be done by the relevant authorities.
