Bogotá opens new cable car system

Bogotá mayor Enrique Peñalosa opened the new cable car system in the Colombian capital, which will connect the Ciudad Bolívar and San Cristóbal sectors, although he clarified that full operations will not start until Saturday.

During the ceremony, Peñalosa said that when he took office in 2016, the design of the 240bn peso (US$74mn) project was not finished and that the previous administration – led by former presidential candidate Gustavo Petro – only purchased 5% of the plots of land needed for the line, the city government said in a release.

"Because of this we made adjustments to the design in order to increase the cabins' capacity," Peñalosa said.

Works began in 2016 under Unión Temporal Cable Bogotá, and entailed a 3.34km line with four stations and 163 cabins, which are expected to transport up to 3,600 passengers per hour.

A separate contract to operate and maintain the new system was awarded this year to consortium Cable Móvil for 91.5bn pesos.

Meanwhile, the city government plans to carry out a 100bn-peso plan to renovate the area near the cable line, a including public services building dubbed SuperCADE and new parks.