Post by gondola-project

Gulmarg Gondola. Image from Wikipedia.

A huge system of rip-offs was recently exposed in the Jammu and Kashmir Cable Car Corporation. This sophisticated and carefully organized scam sold cheaper, fake tickets to the public for the Gulmarg Gondola, one of Asia’s most scenic cable cars. The tickets looked so genuine that, according to the news story, management believes the scam could only have been an insider job. Authorities believe the fraud has been going on for a long time.

The scam was revealed when passengers were overheard speaking of cheaper but identical looking tickets. When their tickets were scanned for authenticity, it was only their bar codes that proved false and gave them away.

The entire affair is an expensive and painful lesson for the corporation and its shareholders. Gondola systems provide inexpensive infrastructure, but builders should not skimp on any necessary elements.

Had they used the cable car industry’s leading ticketing control systems, this scam would have been far harder to execute. We’ve always believed that it’s worth the investment to do things right. Paying for quality at the start means fewer hiccups later on. As the old saying goes, “you get what you pay for.” And in this case, they truly paid for what they got.