Woman recalls son’s final phone call before ropeway tragedy in Gujarat

Halol (Gujarat), Sep 7 (PTI) Jayaben Mali was inconsolable as she recounted the final phone call she received from her only son, Suresh Mali, just hours before he was killed with five others in a ropeway accident on Pavagadh Hill in Panchmahal district of Gujarat.

Six people died after the cable wire of a cargo ropeway snapped at Pavagadh Hill, famous for the Mahakalika Temple at the summit, on Saturday.

Suresh Mali, a florist in his 30s who supplied fresh flowers to the temple, assured his mother Jayaben that he had made a delivery and would be returning soon, only to never make it home.

Jayaben fought to hold back her tears as she recounted her last conversation with her only son.

"Suresh had travelled to Vadodara to procure flowers and spoke to me around 1 pm, informing me he had sent a bag of flowers and would be returning soon," a visibly distraught Jayaben told reporters.

"I called on his mobile phone again after a while, but it was switched off. It rang once, then there was no answer," she said.

A ropeway operator, who was at the scene of the tragedy, said the situation unfolded suddenly.

The visibility was poor as it was cloudy, and he could not see what happened, he said.

"I was operating the ropeway when it broke. I could not see what had happened. The place was under a blanket of clouds. It (the trolley) suddenly broke," the operator said.

Superintendent of Police, Panchmahal, Haresh Dudhat, said that prima facie, the accident occurred after the wire of the ropeway snapped.

An investigation is underway with the help of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), he said, adding that it will be clear if the trolley was going uphill or coming down only after the probe.

Local MLA Jaydratsinh Parmar said that the ropeway was being used to carry different materials to the top of the hill, and the entire trolley of the ropeway came crashing down, hitting one of the towers.

All six people who were inside the trolley died, he said.

The deceased ropeway operators, Mohammad Anwar Mahmad Sharif Khan and Balwant Singh Dhaniram, were natives of the Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

Their mortal remains will be taken to their hometown, they said.

Pavagadh Hill rises from Champaner in three stages, and its plateau lies at an altitude of 1,471 feet. The hilltop has a heavily patronised temple dedicated to Goddess Kali. It attracts 2.5 million visitors every year. PTI COR KA PD ARU