Without boats, Coimbatore's Singanallur boathouse locked again

COIMBATORE: A locked door welcomes visitors to the renovated Singanallur boathouse that was inaugurated just ten days ago.
The civic body had renovated the boathouse at a cost of 30lakh and launched it with much fanfare without purchasing any boats. An adventure company had offered to lend their boats for 10 days but on Wednesday, the boats had to be returned to the firm.Since then, the functioning of the boathouse has come to a halt, disappointing hundreds of people who had visited it on Thursday.
The boathouse was built ten years ago at the Singanallur tank. But boating services were stopped despite good patronage due to the growth of water hyacinth. Last year, when P Rajkumar became mayor, he announced that the boathouse would be returned to its original glory.
The civic body started removing water hyacinth and cleaning the tank and renovated the boathouse. In addition to the 30lakh spent for renovation and beautification, more than 5lakh was spent on removal of the weeds.
But now residents question the rationale of the corporation on renovating the boathouse without purchasing boats. "I have been planning to visit the tank for a boat ride but managed to find time only now. After getting here I was told that they no longer offer boating services,'' said S Nandhakumar, who visited the boathouse on Thursday. The least the corporation could have done was to announce that boating services had been stopped, he said.
"More than 50 people came on Wednesday evening,'' said the security personnel guarding the boathouse. When the boathouse was functioning, it saw a minimum of 100 people daily.
The boats were provided by National Adventure Foundation (NAF). "The corporation had asked us to provide boats and training for ten days," said captain Jay Shankar, member of NAF.
A senior corporation official said that they had planned to purchase boats. "A resolution needs to be passed in the council for purchase of boats following which we will invite tenders,'' he said.