Locals spent Rs 60 lakh to restore 159-foot-long boat for Nehru trophy race
Nadubhaghom Chundan
ALAPPUZHA: After a decade’s gap, the historic Nadubhaghom Chundan will compete in the Nehru Trophy Boat Race in Punnamada lake here with 14 other ‘kings of waters’ on the second Saturday of August.
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India along with daughter Indira, had jumped into the boat in 1952 during the race resulting in the inception of the Nehru Trophy.
The first Chundan (snake boat) which entered the Guinness book of records in 1996 as the largest canoe capable of carrying 118 crew, Nedubhagom had kept off the races after 2002.
But the locals have revi-ved it by spending around Rs 60 lakh. With a length of 159 feet — almost a feet shorter than the old — it was repaired under the supervision of Kozhimukku Sabu Narayanan, the grandson of legendary Kozhimukku Odassaril Narayanan Assary, and will be rowed by 103 oarsmen, including five amaram (main rowers) and 10 singers.
“Carved in a single piece of anjili wood, the Chundan is smeared in sardine oil. It will be rowed by the Punnamada boat club. The training camp is set to start on Wednesday,” says Joseph Elamkulam, the club secretary.
It was in August last the boat club had handed over the boat to Nehru Trophy Boat Museum as part of a mega tourism circuit project in Alappuzha.
V.V. Grigary, a commentator and Nadubhagom boat club member, said: “The Nadubhagom Chundan was a dark horse in the races until 2002. Later, it lost its sheen and several oarsmen left the club. Once the club had more than 500 members led by Jose Pushpamangalam and N. Narayana Kurup, the great oarsmen, but now it has only fewer than 100 members,” he added.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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