How safe is your boat ride?

VELLORE: The Pulicat lake tragedy that claimed 22 lives on December 25 has brought the focus on the safety at boating spots in various locations. Boat rides at places in Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts do not seem to offer a safe experience to the public. Boating at the Vellore Fort moat started in 2005 with lesser number of boats and with the increase in arrival of tourists, more number of boats were put into service from time to time. The boating has evoked interest not only from tourists at the  Vellore golden temple, but has also become the favourite pastime of Vellorians, as the moat is located in the heart of the city and one need not travel far to enjoy a ride. The boat trip is widely chosen by the p ublic as there is no other significant mode of entertainment in the city. However, the absence of divers here has been the topic of debate whenever the safety measures at the Vellore moat is spoken about. Out of the 17 boats here, nine are under repair. Sources say that there are very less number of life jackets, and even those are not distributed to the tourists, as there isn’t sufficient stock. Also, it is learnt that the life jackets available are also not in good condition.The fare for boating for adults is `10, while for children, it is `5. The boating at the moat is under the control of district administration. However, Vellore Corporation is expected to take control over it from January 1, 2012.The artificial lake in Yelagiri hills on an area of 57 sq m also offers boating.The Yelagiri Hills Development and Tourism Promotion Society runs the Boat Club, which has both pedal and row boats.There are 10 pedalling and 10 rowing boats used at the lake.  But, almost all the boats have some fault or the other. The boatmen-boat ratio is also not proportionate as there are only five boatmen here. As per the officials, there are 100 life jackets, but nothing has reportedly been found used so far. Panchayat president of Yelagiri hills, Achudhan said, “No special precautionary steps were taken after the Pulicat incident, as we are already careful in such cases. Boating is allowed only up to a particular point. The lake is not much deep up to this limit, even if somebody falls from the boat, one can manage to swim to safety. Moreover, two divers are employed to save, incase of any untoward incident”.When contacted, Yelagiri hills VAO said, “I didn’t receive any instruction in this regard from the government. But, I have begun to keep an eye on the boating services here since last week on my own.”  “The boating area is very small and the pond is not so deep. And we don’t allow people to travel through the reservoir,” said the Assistant Engineer of Sathanur dam in Tiruvannamalai.He also added, “only pedal boats are used here and two life jackets per boat are made available. The repair and maintainence of the jackets has been leased out on an annual basis. However, the tourists were not using it so far. But, I have ensured that  the people concerned insist that the tourists wear them while stepping into the boat. And another issue is that there are no divers employed here.”