Rome's cable car project needs approval from new transport minister.

Funding for a cable car project in the western suburbs of Rome has reportedly been approved by Italy's transport ministry, according to Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

The Battistini-Casalotti cable car scheme, pushed by Rome's mayor Virginia Raggi ever since her election campaign in 2016, was reportedly approved by the former transport minister Danilo Toninelli, a member of Raggi's populist Movimento 5 Stelle, before he departed office in recent days.

However the project is believed to be awaiting final approval by Italy's new transport minister Paola De Micheli of the centre-left Partito Democratico.

The contentious funicular plan, which has been met with widespread irony on social media, is costed at €109 million. The scheme is designed to alleviate traffic congestion between the suburbs of Casolotti and Boccea by connecting commuters to the Battistini metro station.

The four-km Battistini-Casalotti line would have seven stations, with a total travel time of just under 18 minutes, and would be capable of transporting up to 3,600 people per hour.

The line would have around 200 cabins, each of which would transport 10 passengers, with two rows of five seats facing each other.