Virbhadra Singh, the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, on Sunday lay the cornerstone for the $1.55 million aerial ropeway project that will connect this town to McLeodganj, the residence of the Dalai Lama in Tibet.

There will be 24 gondola lifts on the 1,638-meter ropeway, which can carry 1,000 people an hour. The project’s completion date is two years from now, according to the executing agency.

The chief minister claimed during his speech that once it was finished, the ropeway would shorten the 40-minute drive from Dharamshala to McLeodganj into just 10 minutes.

The project would be carried out by Dharamshala Ropeway Limited, a joint venture between TRIL Urban Transport Private Limited and Power Himalayas Limited, and would be noise-free, electrically powered, and environmentally benign, and non-polluting, according to Singh.

The CM asserted that in order to relieve congestion in the tourist cities, the state government promoted alternate transportation options including ropeways. The Dharamshala ropeway, he continued, “will help promote tourism in the twin hill towns,” adding that it would be possible to set up such ropeways in other significant locations to boost tourism in Kangra.