Each Assembly election sees candidates of various hues for Thripunithura constituency hopping on a canoe across the backwaters to canvass votes among the 46 families with over 230 members on the Valanthakkad Island in the city’s Maradu municipality.
Promises are made each time, without fail, to build a motorable bridge to the mangrove-rich landmass which doesn’t have properly-laid roads.
Tired of listening to the empty promises, the islanders formed an association to push their case and empanelled a ferryman to transport them on the western side, towards Nettoor.
A fleet of dug-out and fibreglass canoes owned by the villagers take them to and from the island on the eastern side, where no ferry service is available. “Nearly a quarter century has gone since efforts were first made to have a bridge linking the island to the mainland. It remains a pipedream even now, putting the islanders to indescribable hardship,” says Rathi Divakaran, municipal councillor representing the island.
“There were several proposals. K. Babu, outgoing minister, in his election manifesto in 2011, offered to construct a rainbow bridge which remained on paper. There was a proposal by NABARD to have a bridge on the eastern side, but it could not be executed as the fund earmarked was meant to link up urban areas with panchayats. Since either banks of the backwater astride the island fell under the Maradu municipality, it could not be done,” says K.B. Babu, an islander working at Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan at Piravom.
“The municipal budget last year allocated Rs.15 lakh to have a floating bridge, but there were no takers for the project. This time around, the LDF has promised a hanging bridge in its manifesto,” explains Ms. Divakaran.
“Without a bridge, the islanders are forced to leave their vehicles on the far bank of the backwater where pilferage of petrol from vehicles is rampant. When it pours, the banks overflow, making it tough to navigate the canoes. It’s a hard time for school children,” says Pramod, an islander who makes miniature crafts, houseboats and traditional oar boats. The transportation of raw material being a costly affair, it has affected his vocation. A primary health centre and a mobile medical unit with basic laboratory facility and piped water connection apart, the island has no civic facility.
