Indian Transport Minister Meets Anton Seeber, CEO Of LEITNER At Nordkette Railways Innsbruck
As part of his stay in Tyrol, India's cabinet minister for road construction and transport, Nitin Gadkari, visited Innsbruck's Nordkette Railways.In India, the cable car business is flourishing, and major projects are planned for the coming years - with its cable car expertise, Tyrol is one of India's most important partners. The history of the origins of the Innsbruck Nordkette Railways as the first public-private partnership project in the Austrian cable car industry was naturally the focus of the political flying visit. A delegation from business and tourism - led by Innsbruck's Deputy Mayor Markus Lassenberger - accompanied the Indian top politician.
At the high-level summit meeting high above Innsbruck, “big train station” was the order of the day. Well-known personalities from politics, business and tourism had gathered to accompany the Indian Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari up the Hafelekar. In his welcome address, Innsbruck's Deputy Mayor Markus Lassenberger immediately referred to the purpose of the exploratory tour: "Strong partnerships are very important in order to optimize mobility in urban and alpine areas using cable cars. The Innsbruck Nordkette Railways show how a partnership in the sense of 'Public Private Partnership' can work extremely well. This will make future projects easier and quicker to implement.”
International recognition for Innsbruck
The guest from India had already found out about the construction of the Nordkette cable cars as part of a public-private partnership (PPP) and consequently had very specific questions for his companions. According to Nitin Gadkari, he really enjoyed the short trip: “It is a great pleasure to be here and a historic moment in my life. The cable car is first class and the service very much to my satisfaction. I really enjoy the climate here, snow and ice are something very special for us." The Indian Ambassador to Austria, Jaideep Mazumdar, explained the background to the ministerial visit: "The purpose of the visit was to take part in the INTERALPIN trade fair and to exchange ideas with the ropeway manufacturers from the region. Our interest is that India has a $15 billion program which includes the construction of 260 installations to be completed over the next five years."
Thomas Schroll, Host and Managing Director of Nordkettenbahnen, added: "We are delighted that the first public-private partnership project for cable cars in Austria also attracts international attention. The companies STRABAG and LEITNER were responsible for the planning, implementation and operation. The very successful project also developed into a great added value for the city of Innsbruck and its tourism.”
Barbara Plattner, Managing Director of Innsbruck Tourismus, referred to this immediately: “Innsbruck rightly and proudly articulates its unique selling point 'alpine-urban'. With a journey time of just under thirty minutes from the city centre, the Nordkette cable cars are more than 2. 000 meters above sea level for a unique city-mountain experience. We are very pleased that our region can serve as a 'showroom' for environmentally friendly transport solutions, state-of-the-art cable car technology and innovative financing models as part of this high-ranking visit." a best practice example for the Public Private Partnership model. As such, they are a modern urban infrastructure that serves both the local population and tourism and optimally connects the city with a central local recreation area.” state-of-the-art cable car technology and innovative financing models.”
Ishvinder Maddh, Indian-Austrian travel professional and Managing Director of Robinville added: “I see the Nordkette cableways as a best-practice example of the public-private partnership model. As such, they are a modern urban infrastructure that serves both the local population and tourism and optimally connects the city with a central local recreation area.”
Tyrolean companies export technology all over the world
Starting from Austria, domestic companies have been successfully exporting know-how abroad for years, are thus economically successful and have long had their sights set on the Indian subcontinent. "In view of the fact that India has around 1.4 billion inhabitants and a gigantic infrastructure investment program, it is obvious that this country is of course of interest to us as a market," emphasized Franz Urban, member of the Board of Directors of STRABAG AG. “India offers many opportunities to ambitiously pursue our more than 20-year history in this country for further business developments. We are pursuing the goal of optimizing the added value for people and minimizing the burden on the environment. India, which is now the fifth largest economy in the world, is of course very interesting for us. In particular because we have already successfully completed projects there, such as the 'ATAL Tunnel Rohtang' in the Himalayas and several metro and tunnel projects in Mumbai and Delhi. The STRABAG subsidiaries Efkon and SISS are already developing solutions for smart cities, toll systems and MEP projects for the Indian market,” Urban continues.
Nordkette Railways: A role model for the “Public Private Partnership” model
The Innsbruck Nordkette Railways are still a prime example of a successful public-private partnership in the field of public transport and, thanks to their architectural and technological quality, have become a new landmark for the city of Innsbruck, summarized Anton Seeber, CEO of LEITNER AG: "We were already sixteen years ago, when we implemented the Innsbruck Nordkette Railway project together with STRABAG, convinced of its usefulness as a tourist and transport solution. This optimism has proven to be true to this day!”
