The world’s longest three-rope cable car system was inaugurated in the northern province of Lao Cai on February 2 to connect Muong Hoa Valley with Fansipan Mountain - the so-called “Roof of Indochina”.
At the inaugural ceremony, representatives from Guinness World Records presented a certificate recognising the system as the world’s longest three-rope cable car (6,292.5 metres).
The facility was also named as the three-rope cable car system with the world’s biggest height gap between its departure and arrival stations (1,410 metres).
It is able to carry up to 2,000 passengers per hour with each cabin accommodating 35 people.
The system shortens the travel time to the peak of the 3,143-metre Fansipan, the highest mountain in Viet Nam as well as Laos and Cambodia, to 15 minutes instead of two days of climbing.
The project’s designer, Doppelmayr Garaventa Group, said with the world’s most modern three-rope system, the Fansipan cable car is tolerant of harsh weather conditions and so guarantees complete safety for visitors.
The system is expected to help boost the number of tourists to Sa Pa by 30 - 40 percent every year and reach 3 million by 2020. It will also become the main tourism service in Sa Pa town in the next few years.
At the inauguration, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said the cable car system will help energise socio-economic development for Lao Cai as well as the entire northwestern region of Viet Nam. It will turn Sa Pa into a stronger magnet for both domestic and foreign visitors.
The system began construction in November 2013 by Viet Nam’s Sun Group with the consultancy of the world’s leading cable car group Doppelmayr Garaventa.