World's Longest Cable Car Moves Ahead: Nepal Approves the Rs 55 Billion Muktinath Project

The Muktinath cable car has been talked about in Mustang teahouses for years, usually with a shrug — big plans, little paper. That changed this summer. On 5 June 2026, the Investment Board Nepal approved the project's investment at its 64th meeting, and the developer has now submitted the Environmental Impact Assessment report to the ministry. On paper, Nepal is now one approval away from starting construction of the longest cable car on earth.

We first covered the project when it was pitched around Indian pilgrim traffic in our earlier Muktinath cable car report. This is the follow-up the search traffic keeps asking us for: what has actually been decided, and what is still pending.

The project at a glance

Under the build-own-operate-transfer model, the private developer finances and runs the line before eventually handing it to the state. The company's own proposal put the bill at Rs 57.64 billion; the widely reported working figure is Rs 55 billion including bank interest. Either number makes this one of the largest private infrastructure bets in Nepal's history.

The environmental question

An 81-kilometre line through the Annapurna region does not go unnoticed. Reporting on the EIA has flagged that the corridor could affect around 229 households and some 24,500 trees, and those numbers will be scrutinised before any approval. Construction can only enter a concrete phase once the EIA clears the ministry — a process that has stalled other Nepali megaprojects before. Nobody should book a gondola seat yet.

What this means for trekkers

Longer term, a working cable car would remake access to Mustang: monsoon-proof, flight-proof transport to 3,800 metres, opening Muktinath to pilgrims who could never trek there — the project's stated market is the enormous Indian pilgrimage flow. It would also land in a region whose permit rules just shifted; see our report on the new US$50-per-day Upper Mustang permit. For trekkers, the honest read is mixed: easier logistics and busier shrines, on a trail corridor that has already traded some wilderness for roads over the past decade.

Our take from Pokhara: the mountains move slowly, and so do megaprojects. We will report each real milestone — EIA approval, financial close, first tower — as it happens, not before.

Sources: The Rising Nepal (IBN approval), Khabarhub (EIA submission), Bizness News (cost, specifications). 📷 Cover: @yash.gupta927 via Instagram.