Preparations for the Nehru Trophy Boat Race (NTBR) to be held at Punnamada Lake on August 12 are in full swing. A record number of 78 boats are participating in the race this time.
The organisers are setting up a modern starting system that could provide accurate timings. The contrivance will be fixed within two days and a trial run will be held on August 7 under the supervision of the infrastructure committee headed by irrigation executive engineer R. Rekha.
The new system is being introduced in the wake of complaints over the timings at the starting points during earlier events.
The preliminary race for boats in smaller categories will begin at 11 a.m. on August 12. The final round of the smaller boats will be held after the chundan boats’ heats in the afternoon.
A pageant of the boats will be held at 2 p.m. The boats will assemble at 1 p.m. at ‘Kurisadi’ and race towards the finishing point.
A mass drill will be conducted then at the finishing point.
Vanchipattu competition
A vanchipattu (boat song) competition will be held at the Town Square at 8 a.m. on August 8. District Collector Veena N. Madhavan will hoist the flag to mark the event.
Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac will inaugurate a public meeting. C.K. Sadasivan, former MLA, will preside over the meeting. Public Works Minister G. Sudhakaran will inaugurate the valedictory meeting at 4 p.m. Transport Minister Thomas Chandy will give away the prizes to the winners. Alappuzha municipal chairman Thomas Joseph and K.C. Venugopal, MP, will be among the dignitaries who will address the meeting.
The winner in the vanchipattu (boat song) competition for the public will get a cash prize of ₹11,000 while the winners in the senior and junior students’ categories will get ₹8,250 and ₹7,700 respectively, apart from ever-rolling trophies.
For students
‘Niracharthu’, a competition for students in colouring and painting, was held on Thursday at the Leo Thirteenth school auditorium. Over 1,000 students participated in the competition.
There were colouring contest for nursery and lower primary school students and painting competition for upper primary and high school students. The Collector inaugurated the event by drawing a picture of a snakeboat.
