Tanzania in final preparations to introduce cable car on Mount Kilimanjaro

Tanzanian tourism authorities aims to introduce a cable car on Mount Kilimanjaro. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic .

Tanzanian tourism authorities aims to introduce a cable car on Mount Kilimanjaro. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic .

Published Dec 1, 2021

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Tanzanian tourism authorities said on Tuesday they were in final preparations to start a process of introducing cable car on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain.

Mary Masanja, the Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, said the process to introduce the cable car is on the mountain is on track and will begin very soon.

Masanja told a press conference in the capital Dodoma that the cable cars will mostly be used by tourists and other climbers who could not walk to the mountain's peak on foot.

Mount Kilimanjaro, one of Tanzania's leading tourist destinations, is about 5 895 meters above sea level, with roughly 50 000 climbers from across the world attempting to reach the summit of the mountain annually.

In Dec. 2020, Paul Banga, the Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA) assistant conservation commissioner for national parks development, said the government of Tanzania has approved the installation of a cable car on Mount Kilimanjaro.

Banga said the government has given TANAPA the green light to invest in the installation of the cable car.

Meanwhile, a first of its kind skywalk is set to debut in South Africa by 2023. With a 900 metre drop, the God’s Window Skywalk will be higher than the Grand Canyon Skywalk, which stands between 150m and 280m, and the Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge in China, which is 260m at its highest point.

IOL Travel reported that the skywalk, a cantilevered glass walkway suspended off the edge of the cliff, offers guests a 360-degree panoramic view.