Incomplete work to delay Akkulam village reopening

Rs. 1.3-cr. facelift fails to restore old grandeur

The partially renovated swimming pool and the music fountain in the Akkulam tourist village. Photo: Anil Radhakrishna

The idyllic tourist village of Akkulam is to remain out of bounds for visitors as the Rs.1.33 crore work that is on the final phase has not been able to give the much needed facelift and address the core issues.

The picnic spot will need a matching amount to restore it to its old grandeur and to attract tourists, sources in the Tourism Department told The Hindu .

The tourist village was closed down in January 2012 to take up works under the ‘supervision’ of the District Tourism Promotion Council (DTPC).

The renovation of the swimming pool and premises, treatment plant, boat club, restaurant, pavilion, children’s park and electrical works were entrusted to Nirmithi Kendra by Kerala Tourism with a 12-month deadline.

Funds exhausted

Nirmithi Kendra is gearing up to hand over the village back to the DTPC as the funds sanctioned had been exhausted, sources said.

The tourist village is in a pathetic state although 95 per cent of the work is over.

Boating in the Akkulam lake has long come to a grinding halt as the waterbody has been infested with water hyacinth.

Dredging, bank protection work and construction of walkway is dragging on indefinitely.

The building of the boat club and premises has been renovated. But there are no boats for safari and speed boats used for cruise rides have turned into scrap.

The Children’s park has been given a fresh look but the play equipment installed were those purchased earlier. The pool had been partially renovated. The two slides have disappeared from the pool.

The restaurant has only been partially constructed. The maintenance of the main building, music fountain and artificial waterfalls on the slopes of the cliff facing aqua park have not been taken up.

The drains on both sides of the widened road have not been covered with slabs. Boundary wall is yet to be constructed and stray dogs roam around freely.

“All the maintenance costs were covered when the project was prepared. But, the funds were used for laying tiles. Lack of planning and monitoring has led to the present situation,” sources said.

The picnic spot was fetching Rs. 3 lakh monthly to DTPC when it was closed. The loss on account of the village remaining closed for 35 months is over Rs. 1 crore. Three DTPC personnel had been retained in the village and 20 others have been redeployed.