BHUBANESWAR: The services of the ropeway or cable car at Nandankanan zoo may not resume anytime soon. The Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) wants a public hearing before it is restarted as the project passes through an eco-sensitive zone.As many as five villages lie close to the zoo and on the ropeway route. The pollution panel had in March written to the Khurda collector to fix a suitable date and intimate it for organising a public hearing, which is supposed to be carried out according to the procedure laid down in the environment impact assessment authority notification, 2006.The 700-metre-long cable car became defunct in 2014 and the very next year, the then forest minister Bikram Keshari Arukh promised to resume the services within a short span of time. But the zoo couldn't find a suitable company. In 2017, a Kolkata-based private company was selected to install the ropeway but it could not do so until it is allowed at the public hearing."A representative of the district administration not below the rank of additional district magistrate and an officer of the pollution board will supervise and preside over the public hearing. Based on the date fixed by the Khurda administration, the pollution panel will publish an advertisement in the newspaper with the date and place of hearing," said the letter sent by the pollution panel to the collector.All the stakeholders, including representatives of the villagers and the company will be present at the hearing, an officer of OSPCB said. "A notice has been sent to the company's registered office also," he added. According to the agreement reached by the zoo authorities with the private company, the cost of the project will be borne by the latter and it will run using its manpower and logistics. "The profit-sharing out of the ropeway services has been decided. We hope that it will be operational this year," said zoo deputy director Jayant Das. The cable car used to attract about 14,000 visitors a year.

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