In yet another incident involving a houseboat, a double-decker vessel sank in Vembanad Lake near Ponnad here on Tuesday.
There were no passengers in the boat other than three crew members at the time of the incident. Crew members Sebastian, 42; Ratheesh, 32; and Ponnappan, 40; were rescued by the local people. The incident occurred around 11 a.m. The boat was heading to a dockyard at Thanneermukkom from Alappuzha. The houseboat owner said the boat was sailing through the designated boat channel when it hit a concrete pole under water. He claimed that the vessel had registration certificate and other mandatory documents.
This is the second major incident involving a houseboat on the Alappuzha backwaters in less than a month. On January 23, a double-decker houseboat caught fire and gutted near Pathiramanal island in Alappuzha. The passengers had to jump into the water and they were fortunate enough to survive as all of them landed in the shallow bed of the waterbody. Recurring accidents involving houseboats and illegal operations have put the backwater tourism sector in a precarious situation.
