ALAPPUZHA: As many as 66 boats, including 25 snake boats, were registered for the Nehru Trophy Boat Race on Thursday. The boat race will be held at August 13 at Punnamada Lake here. Nehru Trophy Boat Race Society chairman and district collector R. Girija said that apart from chundans (snake boats), eight A-grade veppu, four B-grade veppu, five A-grade iruttukuthi, 16 B-grade iruttukuthi, three churulan and five thekkanodi boats were registered.
This year, the number of the snake boats has gone up to 25 from 20 last year. The organisers have come with structural changes to the contests giving importance to the timing and reduced the length of the track to 1,170 metres from 1,230 metres. The change to the 63-year-old boat race plan brought in after a seven-member sub- committee led by former Legislators C.K. Sadasivan and K.K. Shaju suggested a slew of measures to modernise the mega tourism event.
Unlike the previous editions, the four snake boats that finish with the shortest timings will be selected for the grand finale. Till last year, heat winners had entered the final. A meeting of all snake boat captains will be held on Friday at Pulimootil trade centre', the Collector said.
