Rajasthan High Court stays Jaipur’s Amer-Jaigarh-Nahargarh ropeway over alleged tender irregularity

Jaipur: The Rajasthan High Court on Friday stayed the state government’s in-principle approval for what is being billed as Rajasthan’s longest ropeway project — a 6.5-kilometre line in Jaipur designed to connect Amer, Jaigarh and Nahargarh forts — after a petitioner alleged that the contract was awarded at more than four times a competing bid in violation of public procurement rules.

Justice Sameer Jain ordered that the approval issued on February 2, 2026 be kept in abeyance and listed the matter for further hearing on May 19. The petition has been filed by Shivam Prime Infra Projects Pvt Ltd, one of the three firms that applied for the work, through advocates Abhi Goyal and Hardik Mishra.

According to the petitioner, the firm had offered to construct the ropeway at a cost of approximately Rs 80 crore with little or no impact on forest land and trees, while the bidder eventually selected, GR Infra, had quoted Rs 350 crore for a project that involved damage to forest area and tree cover. The petitioner has placed reliance on the minutes of a meeting held on September 2, 2025 to support its claim about the comparative cost.

Counsel for the petitioner argued that no public advertisement was issued inviting tenders for the project and that the procurement process did not follow the framework laid down by the Rajasthan Transparency in Public Procurement Act, 2012, even though the work falls within the definition of “procurement” under Section 2(13) of the Act.

The ropeway, announced in 2024 and budgeted by the state government, was conceived as part of a wider push by the Centre and the state to develop ropeway connectivity at religious and tourist sites. If executed, the 6.5-km line linking Amer Palace with Jaigarh and Nahargarh would be the longest ropeway in Rajasthan.