Goshree-Island bridge: Memories of struggle

KOCHI: They fought for nearly fourteen years to materialise their dream - a bridge connecting all major islands including Vypeen with the city. And the movement - Vypeen Ernakulam Bridge Action Council - which believed that unity is the greatest strength has crossed the twenty fifth year of its formation on Wednesday. Memories are afresh for the members of the action council which played a major role in making the Goshree-Island bridge a reality.The idea of  the construction of the bridge was mooted by  Sahodaran Ayyappan when he was a minister in the Cochin Legislative Assembly. But due to the merger between Cochin and Travancore to form Thiru-Kochi Assembly the plan did not materialise. After 40 years the prospects of  the project becoming a reality remained brighter. “At that time, reports came that the Government had dropped the idea of the bridge. It was in October 12, 1986 that we decided to form an action council for making the authorities feel the need for a bridge connecting the islands with the city,” said Majnu Komath, who was the convener of the Action Council. Since then, the action council had initiated various protest measures to keep the project in the limelight. “The first was the mass agitation and dharna that we organised in front of the collectorate in 1986. In 1987, we organised another protest march in front of the secretariat,” he added.Among the various protests, the most memorable one was the one which made a model bridge using country boats in August 29, 1989. “ A total of four hundred country boats were arranged in the shape of a bridge across the Vembanad lake connecting Bolgatty to Ernakulam. Nearly thousand people crossed the lake through this bridge,” Majnu said.Till the foundation stone laying ceremony of the bridge that was held in December 29, 2000, they organised various strikes including a hartal in the islands and  handing over a memorandum which had one lakh signatures to the Prime Minister. It was in June 5, 2004 that the bridge was finally opened for the islanders. “We dismissed the council on October 31, 2004. We are happy that our efforts also played a crucial role in making a dream project a reality,” Majnu said.