“Bartholet”, a rope car and gondola manufacturer, has entered Georgia. The company plans to introduce an innovative project – RopeTaxi – in Georgia, which can perform the function of public transport in a densely populated area.
The Swiss industrial company Bartholet has so far developed 312 ropeway projects in 32 countries.
Bartholet’s CEO, Roland Bartholet, told Forbes that their main goal is not to install rope cars in the country’s mountain and ski resorts but to focus on the development of RopeTaxi in urban centers.
“The main area of interest is where the main part of the country’s population lives – Tbilisi, and other cities; places that are crowded and where there is a problem with transportation. Currently, public transport does not have the needed capacity, there are not enough buses or subways, and the city’s population is growing. We believe that the way to solve this problem is our transportation system. We think that based on the topography of Tbilisi, this should be the right solution for moving people from A to B.”
Unlike a regular rope car, the RopeTaxi gondola will move only when there is a passenger in it. And the gondola route will be chosen according to the passenger’s wishes. The mentioned function will be made possible by the arrangement of an interconnecting cableway system.
“With the innovation that we present to you, many problems can be solved with just one installation. In the past, the cable car was just one line from which you could go to another, but now with the cable taxi system, it will be possible to travel on one line, and then, if there is not enough space, to go to rails, which will go underground or over bridges and connect to the next ropeway,” Bartoletti said.
By Mariam Gorkhelashvili
