The valley, middle and mountain stations with restaurants, a cinema and a museum are also to be rebuilt. The cable car is to feature round, fully glazed rotating cabins and will transport 300,000 people a year from the valley station in Entreves/I up to the Pointe Helbronner at 3,452 metres above sea level, i.e. four times as many people as it does today. A likewise revolving platform measuring 14 m in diameter is to be built at the mountain station. From there visitors will be able to venture a walk out onto the glacier, and even admire the mountain peaks of the Mont Blanc Massif in slippers and high-heeled shoes. Through a gallery cut into the granite a lift will also take the visitors to the Turin Hut at 3,335 m.
Nature conservationists are baffled not just by the vast quantities of steel and concrete required for the new installation. They are calling for the cable car to be upgraded without further increasing the already sizeable pressure by the tourist industry on the high-altitude mountain range.
Sources: www3.lastampa.it/costume/sezioni/articolo (it), http://mountainwilderness.it/mw/campagne (it)