Manakamana Cable Car with modern technology after 26 years

Rajesh Babu Shrestha, director of Manakamana Cable Car, said that the work of upgrading the cable car to modern technology was done by the 5 technical team from Austria.

"When the cable car was started 26 years ago, there was no system like it is now, it was run on the basis of what was there," said Shrestha, "New systems are being developed. Accordingly, it has also been taken to a digital system.'

First AC current came and it was converted into BC and DC motor used to drive the gear box. 'Now it can be run directly from AC motor,' said Shrestha, 'the entire control system has been made digital from analog, the main control panel has been changed.' He told that the part has been changed. "At that time, the work was done by closing the cable car for 15 days," he said.

There was talk of upgrading the system three to four years ago. "Technical team can support us in spare parts for two/four years, after that it will be difficult to get spare parts," Shrestha said, "You can't buy spare parts in any store like a car, in the future it will be difficult to find spare parts that match the old way. He said that ropeways are going to be operated in a disconnected manner since the principle of operation is the same.

'Mechanical parts that cannot be changed, we took them out one by one and tested them, for which 9 million rupees were spent,' he said, 'now the work under the first and second phase is continuing.' He was ready to work. "Due to the covid-19, the second phase work could not be done on time, in this phase, the plan was to change the entire control system and the third phase to change the sticks."

The old control panel of the cable car has been replaced with a new one. "The first operating panel has been replaced with a digital panel," Shrestha said, "before it was OK when the green light was on and there was a problem when the red light was on, now everything can be viewed on the computer and operated from the same touch screen." It will appear on the computer. He says that the communication wire has also been replaced at 3.01 km.

'First there was a mechanical sensor, now every important tower will have a digital sensor,' said Shrestha, 'any problem will be known immediately on the computer and after looking at it, the system will run. Now there are only towers, buildings and cable car gondolas as old structures . "The stick was also good, even if the technician changes it every four to five years, it seems that it will take time to change it again. To change it again, you have to stop the cable car and work," he said, "so everything was done at once." The stick was brought from Europe and changed. Shrestha said.

It is estimated that 45 to 50 million rupees will be spent on upgrading the cable car. The stick has changed. AC drives and panels are all fitted. Now the wiring of the towers is going on. "The test work will start within 10/15 days and it will take two and a half weeks to complete this work," he said. "We are planning to bring the cable car back into operation by the last week of August." "Since it is 25 years old, our maintenance expenses were high, now this expense will also decrease," he said.

The construction work started from the end of January 054 and the Mankamana cable car was put into commercial operation from the 8th of November 055. At present, Manakamana Cable Car has been serving 11 million passengers annually.

Mankamana cable car area with 34 gondolas is currently being built at a cost of 550 million to accommodate tourists in the Mankamana cable car complex. As 65 percent of the work on the 40-room resort has been completed, Shrestha also said that it is ready to be put into operation from the beginning of 2025.