They were tourists from Tamil Nadu
On a day when a replica of a ‘kettuvallom’ (Kerala’s traditional houseboat) was the State’s Republic Day float in New Delhi, two women tourists and their two children were killed in a boat accident here on Saturday morning.
The dead were part of a 63-member team of employees of a business firm based in Nungambakkam, Chennai, and their family members. The team was on two-day tour of the State.
The accident occurred at the Kayal Kurissadi boat jetty, where the team was to board a houseboat for a daylong trip to the backwaters. The team reached Kochi on Saturday early morning and checked in at a hotel at Vazhakkala in the city before heading towards Alappuzha by road.
The accident occurred when the team was boarding the houseboat kept ready for them. Rajesh V., one of the survivors who has been admitted to the General Hospital, told The Hindu that their boat was berthed by the side of another boat near the jetty and they were asked to pass through the first boat to reach their boat.
When the women and children passed along the boat berthed closer to the jetty, it started to tilt, due to the load factor. Some of the tourists were trapped inside the boat as it sank.
Locals and other boat operators, who were present at the spot, told The Hindu that the boat was berthed there for repair.
When the boat tilted, the crowd panicked.
“We could rescue those who were closer to the jetty and even those on the other side of the boat. But in the panic, some of them got inside the boat and were trapped as the boat sank in no time. We tried to break a window that remained above water level and pulled some out, but the two women and children could not make it,” said Kunjumon, one of the boat workers who was involved in the rescue operations.
The dead were identified as Sudheshini, 26, wife of Pandidurai, Flat Number 155, MGR Nagar, Athannur, Oorappakkam, Kancheepuram district, and her five-year-old daughter, Ilakkya, and Rohini, 32, wife of Manoj, Number GA, Pioneer House, 28, Saravana Street, T. Nagar, Chennai, and her daughter, Sushmita, 14. Nidha, 42, was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Alappuzha General Hospital.
Those admitted to the hospital, besides Ms. Nidha, were Kalpana, 27; Sahana, four-and-a-half; Hridayavarsha, 10; Prathibha, 34; Rajkumar, 32, and Albert, 43. Sheeba, 34, wife of Ashokan, one of the houseboat operators, was admitted to the hospital, after she collapsed on reaching the spot and witnessing the tragedy.
K.C. Venugopal, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, supervised the rescue operations there.
“All arrangements were made to take the bodies to Chennai in mobile freezers and an Air-bus was arranged for rest of the team to accompany them. Police and Revenue officials have also been asked to escort the team,” he told The Hindu.
A.P. Anil Kumar, Minister for Tourism; T.M. Thomas Isaac, MLA; P. Venugopal, Alappuzha District Collector; K. Padmakumar, Inspector General of Police, Kochi Range; and Thomson Jose, Superintendent of Police, Alappuzha; were present at the hospital to handle the situation. The tourist team was scheduled to return to Kochi by Saturday evening and stay there for the night.
They had plans to visit Athirapally waterfalls in Thrissur on Sunday before returning to Chennai by the evening train.
Keywords: Punnamada Lake, Alappuzha boat capsize, Tourists
The tragedy could heve been averted if everyone had been a little more careful.The boat operators are to be blamed for not making adequate and safe arrangments for the tourists.Tragedies in water keep occuring in kerala despite the hues and cries.When are we going to be perfectly free from it?
Dear Editor,
1. What action has taken against the person who violated basic safety
procedures. The concern should be behind the bar for life term.
2. Is the minister has issued suspension or termination to the
respective local political guy.
3. What will be our PM's comment on this - as 4 lost their lives.
If the same incident happened with US visitors or PM's family, what
will be his reaction.
4. Being a individual i felt very pain and decided not to visit /
travel such boats in Kerala or any state in India till government has
made strict regulations on safety.
With pain,
R. Nagarajan
Social activist / Blood donor
Behalf of the victim's family
Kerala government must streamline its Tourism and Water Transport
departments to follow very strict safety measures especially while
handling bulk number of tourists coming through ‘package tour’
consisting of very vulnerable people like Children, women, senior
citizens etc. Kerala government must deploy exclusive Coastal Tourism
Police personnel in all boat jetties or Embarkments.
There were authentic reports revealing the plight of tourism and
operation of boats in Alappuza due to the devastation of ‘Floating
Jetties’ in places where boats serve to tourists. Just a couple of
days back there was an incident of fire in a luxury vessel but the
timely intervention of personnel could time prevent it . The latest
incident of capsize of boat is the fourth of such accidents which
happened during the last two months’ time.
It is atrocious that there is no precautionary regulatory system under
the control of Tourism Department or Tour Operators’ Associations to
monitor the berthing and sailing of House boats and other luxury boats
in Punnamada backwaters at Alappuzha. Disgrace to Kerala, the state
that proudly flaunts its greenery, water transport, places of
workships etc., and proclaims as ‘God’s Own Country’!
Tourists from distant places who are not aware of the threat involved
while boarding all together in small boats, may be just to embark into
another bigger boat through the other side would have shown over
enthusiasm. The Tour Operator must have strictly guided them to form a
queue and permitted not more than four persons to pass through the
smaller boat at a time.
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