top of page

By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

The Pull of the Mountain

From Alpine resorts to India’s sacred hilltops, gravity-defying funicular railways are quietly transforming the way people climb mountains. For centuries, climbing a sacred hill has been regarded as part of the pilgrimage itself. Devotees have trudged up thousands of stone steps to temples perched on mountain tops, accepting the physical exertion as an expression of faith. But modern India is now discovering that devotion need not always be accompanied by exhaustion. Across Maharashtra, an...

The Pull of the Mountain

From Alpine resorts to India’s sacred hilltops, gravity-defying funicular railways are quietly transforming the way people climb mountains. For centuries, climbing a sacred hill has been regarded as part of the pilgrimage itself. Devotees have trudged up thousands of stone steps to temples perched on mountain tops, accepting the physical exertion as an expression of faith. But modern India is now discovering that devotion need not always be accompanied by exhaustion. Across Maharashtra, an elegant piece of European engineering is quietly changing the pilgrimage experience. The funicular railway - a transport system perfected in the Alps and once associated largely with Swiss ski resorts - is now carrying thousands of pilgrims every day to some of the state’s most revered shrines. It is proving that one of the oldest ideas in rail transport may also be among the most relevant for India’s future. Three of Maharashtra’s best-known hill shrines have already embraced the technology. The Haji Malang Dargah near Kalyan, the Jivdani Mata Temple overlooking Virar, and the Saptashrungi Mata Temple in Nashik district are all destinations that once demanded long, punishing climbs. They are now linked to the plains by sleek funicular railways. The journeys take only minutes, but they represent something much larger: a reimagining of how millions of Indians may one day reach mountain temples without carving wider roads into fragile hillsides. Beyond Convenience The state’s experience has attracted attention because the advantages extend well beyond convenience. Funicular systems require relatively modest investment compared with mountain highways, occupy little land, consume comparatively less energy and have earned an enviable global reputation for safety. For elderly pilgrims, children and people with disabilities, they transform what was once an arduous ascent into an accessible journey. That success is encouraging planners to think bigger. Maharashtra alone has several hilltop shrines that could potentially accommodate similar systems - from Bhimashankar and Jejuri to Trimbakeshwar, Mahabaleshwar, Grishneshwar and Pune’s Parvati Temple. Across India, the possibilities are even greater. The Himalayan temples of Kedarnath, Badrinath and Vaishno Devi, the Kamakhya shrine in Assam, Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, Sabarimala in Kerala and dozens of other revered destinations receive millions of visitors each year, many of whom negotiate steep and environmentally sensitive terrain. The timing is significant. Religious tourism has become one of India's fastest-growing travel sectors, while governments are searching for ways to improve accessibility without inflicting irreversible damage on mountain ecosystems. It is no coincidence that the Centre's ambitious Parvatmala programme aims to develop hundreds of ropeway projects across the country before the decade ends. Funicular railways are emerging as another compelling option wherever gradients are steep but passenger volumes are high. Despite their futuristic appearance, funiculars are anything but new. Their origins stretch back more than five centuries. One of the earliest known predecessors operated in the early 1500s at Hohensalzburg Castle in present-day Austria, where a simple wagon climbed wooden tracks by means of ropes and pulleys. Initially powered by prisoners and later by oxen, it was a remarkably practical solution to an enduring engineering problem: how does one move heavy loads safely up a mountain? The modern passenger funicular arrived much later. In 1862, the French city of Lyon inaugurated what is widely regarded as the first contemporary funicular railway for public transport. During the decades that followed, the technology spread rapidly across Europe's mountainous regions. It became indispensable at Alpine towns, cliffside resorts and eventually ski villages, where conventional railways struggled with impossibly steep gradients. Its brilliance lies in its deceptive simplicity. Unlike an ordinary train that relies entirely on its own engine, a funicular works more like a perfectly balanced weighing scale. Two cars are permanently connected by a steel cable passing over a large pulley at the summit. As one carriage climbs, the other descends. Each acts as a counterweight to the other, dramatically reducing the energy needed to move both. Electric motors or hydraulic systems provide only the additional power required to overcome friction and compensate for differences in passenger loads. The track itself offers another delightful piece of engineering theatre. For most of the journey, the two cars share a single line. As they approach each other midway, the track briefly divides into two parallel lines, allowing the carriages to glide effortlessly past before merging once again. The choreography appears almost magical, though it is the product of meticulous nineteenth-century engineering. The result is one of the safest and most efficient transport systems ever devised for steep terrain. Around the world, funiculars have become fixtures of mountain life, carrying commuters, tourists and skiers to places where roads would be prohibitively expensive or environmentally destructive. Their reliability has made them enduring symbols of engineering elegance rather than technological extravagance. India has traditionally relied on ropeways and cable cars to serve hilltop destinations. These remain practical solutions in many locations, but funicular railways offer distinct advantages where large numbers of passengers must be transported quickly, comfortably and repeatedly. Running on rails, they are less susceptible to wind-related disruptions, can accommodate larger capacities and provide a smoother ride. The system at Palani in Tamil Nadu, inaugurated in 1968, demonstrated the concept decades ago. Maharashtra has now shown how effectively it can be adapted for twenty-first-century pilgrimage. As India’s sacred mountains draw ever larger crowds, the challenge will be to welcome pilgrims without overwhelming the landscapes that make these places sacred in the first place. In that quest, the funicular may prove to be more than just another railway. It is an old invention finding a new purpose - a machine that harnesses gravity rather than fighting it, and in doing so offers a gentler way of reaching the heavens. Three Mountains, Three Miracles The success of Maharashtra’s funicular experiment is best understood not through engineering drawings, but through the mountains themselves. Three very different pilgrim centres - one a centuries-old Sufi shrine, another a forest-clad temple overlooking the Arabian Sea, and the third one of Hinduism’s holiest Shakti Peethas - have demonstrated how the same technology can transform journeys that once demanded hours of physical endurance. The newest and most spectacular is the 1.2-kilometre Funicular Rail to Haji Malang Dargah near Kalyan, inaugurated in January 2026. It is India’s longest funicular and climbs to a lush plateau nearly 2,600 feet above sea level in barely ten minutes. Until recently, pilgrims routinely spent three exhausting hours negotiating the steep mountain path to reach the shrine of the 12th-century Sufi saint, Haji Abdur Rehman Malang Shah Baba. Today, air-conditioned coaches glide silently up the hillside, carrying as many as 1,200 passengers every hour. Powered by the classic counter-balanced cable system, one carriage climbs while another descends, making the ascent remarkably energy-efficient. The railway has transformed a pilgrimage that was often intimidating for the elderly and physically challenged. For decades, many visitors had little choice but to hire palanquins, with return journeys reportedly costing between Rs 8,000 and Rs 10,000. The funicular has reduced those costs dramatically while making the shrine accessible to far larger numbers. The dargah itself remains one of Maharashtra’s most enduring symbols of communal harmony. Hindus and Muslims worship here together, while the shrine continues to be jointly administered by a Muslim Mutavalli, descended from the saint’s family, and a Hindu Vahivatdar from the Karandekar family. Beyond the plateau rises the rugged Malanggad Fort, another 600 feet higher, whose rocky slopes continue to attract seasoned trekkers and aspiring Himalayan mountaineers. If Haji Malang showcases engineering on a grand scale, the Jivdani Mata Temple at Virar illustrates how dramatically a pilgrimage can be shortened without diminishing its spiritual appeal. Perched nearly 1,500 feet above sea level amidst dense forests, the shrine has long drawn devotees from across Maharashtra. Traditionally, visitors climbed around 1,350 stone steps through thick woodland - a two-hour ascent rewarded with sweeping vistas of Vasai-Virar, Thane Creek, the Papad-Khandi Dam and, on clear days, the shimmering Arabian Sea. Everything changed in 2022 when the temple trust commissioned a Rs. 35-crore funicular railway. The climb now takes just five minutes to the temple complex, followed by elevators that carry pilgrims to the sanctum. For families with young children and elderly relatives, the experience has been revolutionary. Kishore and Priyanka Gowale still remember their visit before the railway opened. After climbing every step, they were so exhausted that they rested for nearly an hour before joining the queue for darshan. Returning with their three young children after the funicular became operational, they completed the pilgrimage refreshed rather than fatigued. Yet tradition has not disappeared. Hundreds of devotees whose wishes have been fulfilled still choose to climb every step as an act of thanksgiving. Technology has made the journey optional rather than obligatory. The story began even earlier at the Saptashrungi Mata Temple near Nashik, where India’s first passenger funicular at a major pilgrimage destination commenced operations in 2018. Dedicated to Goddess Saptashrungi Nivasini, this revered Shakti Peeth sits amidst seven mountain peaks nearly 4,660 feet above sea level. Ancient scriptures identify these hills as the eternal abode of the Goddess after her victory over the demon Mahishasura, and the naturally formed rock idol, adorned with eighteen arms holding weapons, draws lakhs of devotees every year. Earlier, pilgrims approaching from Vani village endured a gruelling climb before reaching the temple precincts. The funicular has reduced that journey to scarcely four minutes. Its impact extends well beyond convenience. Local businesses have flourished, visitor numbers have multiplied, employment opportunities have expanded and pilgrimage tourism has become a year-round economic engine. Every ascent offers breathtaking panoramas of cloud-covered hills before depositing passengers at one of Maharashtra’s most sacred shrines. More Than a Ride The success of Maharashtra’s three funicular railways has demonstrated that these systems are not merely tourist attractions but economic catalysts, social equalisers and, potentially, one of the most sustainable ways of opening up India’s sacred mountains. The most immediate impact has been accessibility. For generations, steep hill temples effectively excluded many worshippers—the elderly, people with disabilities, pregnant women and families travelling with young children. A pilgrimage that demanded hours of climbing could be physically impossible for thousands of devotees. Funicular railways have changed that equation almost overnight. At Haji Malang, what was once a punishing three-hour ascent now takes around ten minutes. At Jivdani, a climb of 1,350 steps has become a comfortable five-minute ride. At Saptashrungi, pilgrims reach one of India’s holiest Shakti Peethas in just four minutes instead of enduring a lengthy uphill trek. The consequences ripple far beyond the temple gates. Higher visitor numbers translate into fuller hotels, busier restaurants, expanding transport services and greater demand for local handicrafts, food stalls and pilgrimage-related businesses. At Saptashrungi, traders estimate that pilgrim footfall has increased several-fold since the railway began operations, generating employment for local youth and strengthening the regional economy. Yet prosperity has also brought new challenges. Rapid commercialisation has intensified competition for shop space around temple precincts. Local traders complain that a handful of licence holders dominate the most lucrative stalls, while many others operate informally. The familiar tensions between faith, commerce and politics—visible at many pilgrimage centres across India—have accompanied the new infrastructure. There are environmental considerations as well. Compared with constructing broad mountain roads or parking complexes, funicular railways require relatively modest land acquisition and a far smaller ecological footprint. They reduce vehicular traffic, limit hill cutting and consume comparatively little energy because the ascending and descending cars counterbalance each other. That makes them particularly attractive for India’s environmentally fragile mountain systems—from the Himalayas to the Western Ghats and the Aravallis—where expanding road networks often comes at considerable ecological cost. The implications extend well beyond Maharashtra. Across India, dozens of famous hill shrines still depend entirely on steep stairways, winding roads or seasonal ropeways. Many receive millions of pilgrims annually while struggling with congestion, pollution and difficult terrain. The experience of Maharashtra suggests that carefully planned funicular systems can offer a rare balance between conservation and accessibility. They preserve the mountain while making it easier to climb. Perhaps that is why these railways have attracted growing attention from planners elsewhere. They represent a transport technology that is simultaneously Victorian in concept and remarkably modern in application—a nineteenth-century engineering solution answering twenty-first-century problems. For centuries, pilgrims measured devotion by the hardship of the climb. Today’s funiculars do not diminish that faith. Instead, they ensure that the mountain is open to everyone, whether they arrive with the strength to scale a thousand steps or simply with the desire to pray.

India waits to lasso diamantaire Mehul Choksi

Mumbai: India rubbed its hands gleefully as the Belgium Police honoured its request to arrest the absconder diamantaire Mehul Chinubhai Choksi – more than seven years after he, along with his nephew Nirav Deepak Modi - allegedly duped the Punjab National Bank of nearly Rs. 13,800-crores.

 

The scam involving the ‘Mehul Mama-Nirav Bhanja’ erupted in Jan 2018, after the PNB lodged a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

 

By then the kin, along with many of their family members, winked and slipped out of the country, leaving a rattled India rubbing its palms in disappointment.

 

A political-cum-financial storm raged, embarrassing the Bharatiya Janata Party government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi a year before the Lok Sabha elections.

 

Multiple agencies launched a multi-pronged probe into what became the biggest banking scam in the past quarter century – and almost four times bigger than the stock market-cum-banking fraud the late Big Bull Harshad Mehta had inflicted on the Indian economy 33 years ago (in April 1992) – when it was just opening up.

 

In Belgium

According to official reports, Choksi was living with his Belgium citizen-wife Preeti in Antwerp, a global diamond hub, presumably for the past 18 months on a ‘residency permit’ acquired through questionable means, for medical reasons.

 

Earlier, he shot to the headers (June 2021) while being taken in a wheelchair to a court by the Dominican Republic's Police on charges of sneaking into the small country in the Caribbean Sea, North America.

 

Interestingly, as the Antigua & Barbuda government initiated the process to cancel his citizenship acquired through an investor visa, Choksi had suddenly gone ‘missing’ till he surfaced in the Dominican Republic.

 

The April 2025 action by Belgium followed a request by India’s CBI and the financial frauds specialist Enforcement Directorate (ED) to nab Choksi as the InterPol had revoked his Red Corner Notice in 2023.

 

Mama and Bhanja

‘Mama’ Choksi is the founder-owner of Gitanjali Group while ‘bhanja’ Nirav’s Firestar plus other companies – and the duo, with some PNB officials hand-in-glove – conspired to make a ‘mamu’ of not only PNB, but other banks, as it subsequently tumbled out.

 

After making a quiet exit, Choksi was detected living in the verdant Antigua & Barbuda Isles (West Indies), then attempted entry to the Dominican Republic, was sent back to Antigua & Barbuda and then went to Belgium where he was nabbed on Sunday.

 

Similarly, Modi was found sauntering on the streets of London and nabbed in March 2019. He remains in jail there since India's extradition is still pending.

 

However, India is keeping its fingers crossed that it may finally lay hands on Choksi, bring him to India and face trial in the PNB scam, though it may take time.

 

Born in Mumbai (1959) and educated in Gujarat, Choksi, 66, and wife Preeti have three children.

 

The Rs. 13,800-crore PNB scam

In the modus operandi revealed after India’s second-largest PSU bank PNB admitted it was scammed, Choksi and Modi used fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoU) to get overseas credits or loans from Indian banks.

 

The PNB first informed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) of the fraud and then lodged a criminal complaint with the CBI in Jan. 2018, plus another CBI complaint in Feb, that led to a FIR against Modi and Choksi and their companies.

 

The ED entered the scene to probe the allegations of money-laundering through the LoUs – which they allegedly misused to avail short-term business finances from foreign branches of Indian banks.

 

The probe said that the duo were availing the LoUs from the PNB’s Brady House Branch from March 2011, and over the next six-seven years, managed to get a whopping 1,200-plus LoUs like a breeze with the help of some friendly bankers within.

 

Post-scam, the gold-diamond companies Gitanjali Group and Firestone Group with multiple operations in India and abroad have largely wound up, while some personal assets of the mama-bhanja have been auctioned to recover a part of the dues.

 

ED's plea to declare Choksi fugitive stuck for seven years

Even as absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi, a key accused in the Punjab National Bank loan fraud case, has been arrested in Belgium, the ED's plea to declare him a fugitive economic offender has been pending before a court in Mumbai for nearly seven years.


Choksi, 65, and his nephew diamantaire Nirav Modi are the prime accused in the Rs 13,000 crore PNB bank loan fraud case. Choksi was arrested in Belgium following an extradition request by Indian probe agencies, official sources said on Monday.


The Enforcement Directorate had filed the application in July 2018, seeking to declare Choksi an FEO and confiscate his assets under provisions of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.


However, the matter has witnessed repeated delays owing to a barrage of applications filed by the accused in the PMLA court and the Bombay High Court alleging procedural lapses in the Enforcement Directorate's plea.


"The court is kept busy with frivolous applications, and hearing on our application to declare him (Choksi) an FEO has been adjourned for the past seven years,” an ED officer had said after the hearing was once again deferred this February.


"The court should have continued the hearing and taken a decision on the future course of action once the application was moved," the officer had said.

He had urged the court to take note of the repeated filing of similar applications and to not entertain them.


Choksi's lawyer had informed the court that the accused was undergoing treatment for suspected cancer in Belgium and intended to file an application in connection with his health.


Under the FEO Act, an individual can be declared a Fugitive Economic Offender if a warrant has been issued against him for an offence involving Rs 100 crore or more and he has left India while refusing to return. Once declared an FEO, the person's property can be confiscated by the investigating agency.


Choksi had challenged the ED's application in the Bombay High Court, alleging that the agency "had not followed proper procedure before filing the application and, hence, it stands vitiated".


However, in September 2023, the High Court dismissed his plea, ruling that the ED had adhered to the prescribed format under the FEO Act. It also vacated a stay on the special court's proceedings.


Despite this, the hearing on declaring Choksi FEO could not commence, with Choksi continuing to file applications before the special court through his lawyers.


While most of these pleas have been dismissed, a few remain pending. His latest attempt to stall proceedings through a plea to recall the notice issued on the ED's FEO application was rejected in December 2023.


According to ED officials, Choksi left India under suspicious circumstances in early January 2018.


Shifting stance

Choksi's counsel has argued that the ED kept shifting its stance on the material grounds for declaring him an FEO and that the suspension of his Indian passport made it impossible for him to return for investigation.

The court, however, rejected this argument, stating that the notice was issued based on accurate information and not based on "wrong facts or mistaken assumptions".


ED claimed the accused left the country under suspicious circumstances in the first week of January 2018.


Nirav Modi has already been declared as an FEO by the special court. He has been lodged in jail in London since 2019.

Comments

bottom of page