Chugging along sleepy canals, stopping at select points or cruising to a village destination, the backwater landscape of Kottayam accommodates too many boats offering rides to visitors.
Some of these vessels, according to authorities, operate without licence while a few lack adequate security gears. A few have deployed untrained crew, further adding to the safety concerns.
Taking a serious note of these violations, a stakeholder meeting of the houseboat industry in Kottayam has laid out a mutually agreed set of rules with regard to the operation of houseboats stationed in the district. The boats have been allotted time till March 31 to comply with the guidelines, which will be followed by periodical inspections by the Port Department officials.
As per the pact, only houseboats possessing licences issued by the Port Authority in Alappuzha will be permitted to ply on Vembanad Lake. The step comes in view of luxury boats conducting unauthorised operations in the region with licences secured from ports in Kollam or Kodungallur.
Fee waiver sought from PCB
Alongside the licence, the authorities have also made it mandatory for the boats to secure ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the Pollution Control Board (PCB) for operating tourist cruises. Based on a request by the houseboat owners, the Collector has agreed to hold discussions with the PCB on granting a waiver in the one-time payment of fee for a period of five years.
Further, the boats are also required to register with the local body where their anchoring point is situated. “Safety gears should be kept in the vicinity of passengers. Before going on each cruise, the crew is required to apprise the visitors about how to use each safety equipment – both in English and in Malayalam,” said P.K. Sudheer Babu, District Collector, Kottayam.
The food factor
The crew members, who should be recruited on the basis of qualification and experience, will have to wear uniforms. A strict ban has been imposed on the recruitment of migrant workers as boat crew. The authorities will provide adequate training to the crew members in rescue operations. Similarly, only boats possessing licence from the Food Safety Authority will be permitted to serve food to the tourists on board. A decision with regard to ensuring adequate toilet facilities on board too has been agreed upon.
The authorities, meanwhile, are in the final stages of constructing a boat, which will collect waste directly from the house boats .
The meeting, convened by the District Collector, was also attended by representatives of the house boat owners association, DTPC secretary Bindu Nair and Biju Varghese, the Deputy Director of Tourism, among others.
As per estimates, about 120-odd house boats besides 60 Shikara boats carry out tourist operations in the Kottayam district. Majority of these vessels are stationed across the boat landing points at Kumarakom, Kaippuzhamuttu, Cheepungal, and Kavanattinkara.
Meanwhile, official sources pointed at the absence of a fire station with a speed boat at Kumarakom as a major lacuna in the district’s tourism sector. Though a proposal to establish one near the Agricultural University campus here had been mooted earlier, no follow-up action was initiated afterwards.