|
|
| By Associated Press March 23, 2006 |
|
| |
Banking on a continuing rise in tourism, the city of Jerusalem plans to build an $8 million cable car system that will carry visitors from a hill in a modern in the modern section of the city to the Western Wall, a city spokesman said.
Government officials hoped the cable car, expected to be approved soon by the city council, will ease the crush of visitors in the streets of the Old City, often the site of traffic jams and sparse parking, said Gidi Schmerling, a city spokesman.
The project is part of a larger transportation plan that includes a tram covering most parts of Jerusalem, he said.
Jerusalem's Old City is epicenter of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel captured the neighborhood, home to sites holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast War. Both Israel and the Palestinians lay claim to the area.
The Old City is also the most popular tourist destination for visitors to Israel, Schmerling said.
If approved, the cable car could be finished as early as 2008, he said. There will be a large parking lot at the cable car station in the modern part of Jerusalem. The car will carry passengers over a small valley and stop at a station just outside the walls of the Old City, near the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site.
Tourism, which was crushed by the outbreak of Israel-Palestinian violence in September 2000, has rebounded in recent years.
The number of visitors to Israel rose 26 percent in 2005 over the previous year, and figures for the first two months of 2006 reflect a 24 percent rise over the same period last year, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics.
Israel's Tourism Ministry hopes to attract 3 million tourists this year, shattering the previous record of 2.5 million in 2000.
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
