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Colombia inaugurates first cable car in capital
BOGOTA, Dec 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Bogota inaugurated its first cable-car on
Thursday, linking an impoverished and crime-ridden neighborhood to the city’s
transport network.
“Today we launched the TransMiCable,” said the city’s mayor, Enrique
Penalosa on Twitter.
The 3.5-kilometer (two-mile) long cable car cost 240 billion pesos ($73
million) to build and will be able to carry up to 3,600 passengers an hour in
each direction.
Its aim is to provide residents of Ciudad Bolivar greater access to the
capital city’s center with the aim of reducing poverty and violence in the
neighborhood.
Until now, residents had to walk several kilometers or embark on a long bus
journey to reach the city’s urban transport network.
Similar installations in other major cities — Cali, Manizales and Medellin
— have been credited with facilitating the social integration of poor
ghettos and reducing violence in them.
Each journey will cost 2,300 pesos in a country where the minimum wage is
just over 780,000 pesos a month but where a quarter of the population live in
poverty.
Similar urban cable cars can be found elsewhere in Latin America, such as
the capital cities of Mexico, Venezuela and Bolivia.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0845 hrs