What is now a fishing harbour in South Chellanam will be developed into a larger one soon. The sea groynes that stop sea water reaching the interiors have also helped to keep away silt and sediments. The walls will be fortified and the groynes extended.
As there are no other harbours between Fort Kochi and Arthungal near Alleppey, the South Chellanam continues to be a busy one. It receives about a hundred fishing boats daily, from Fort Kochi and Munnambam to Kollam and Alleppey. The numbers will only go up as the season gears up.
The Golf Club near the Cochin Airport International Limited (CIAL) will be extended to include a sports centre – including a 3,000-seat indoor stadium and an Olympic-size swimming pool. Non-members can use the facilities. There’s also a shopping complex coming up in the vicinity.
The Rs50-crore sports centre project will be hosting facilities for indoor games such as table tennis, basketball, squash, billiards, badminton and boxing. This will greatly aid the 1200-member club as not all the members know how to play golf. The new venture will also attract many visitors and international members as the golf club coming up is one of the best airport golf clubs in the world.
The President’s Trophy Boat Race held recently, on the Ashtamudi Lake in Kollam, was the first in the newly launched boat race. The winner of this edition, held on August 30, is Sree Ganesh Chundan, belonging to the St Francis Boat Club, Kollam. The gold trophy and Rs 10-lakh prize money was presented by President Pratibha Patil.
The captain of the St Francis Club, K. Arun Kumar was all smiles as he zoomed past Nehru Trophy winners Devas rowed by Jesus Boat Club. The Nehru Trophy Boat Race held in Alleppey before this event is another world=famous boat race. It was instituted by Nehru himself, after he visited the area in Alleppey. Devas team were glad when they won the Thekkaodi women’s category. This grand boat race is the only one of the kind named after the Indian President.
There were several tourists and locals who flocked to witness this superb event. The watery track itself was more than a kilometre long, with people flocking on either side.
Midnapore West district in West Bengal has the world’s longest railway platform in India. It is located in Kharagpur. At 1.1km length, no other railway platform can vie for this post. If you also consider subway platforms, the Chicago subway has the longest platform. The city of Kharagpur is also famous for having one of the biggest railway workshops in India.
The station here was established on the railway map in December 1898 and connects various parts of West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and other north eastern states of India. During the time of Indian Independence, this area enjoyed a lot of importance in the railway network. After Independence, this railway station was also instrumental in the construction of the Haldia Port.
Kharagpur has another first to its credit – the country’s first Indian Institute of Technology was started in this city.
By the end of this week, the Indian contingent to the Arctic would have reached Ny-lesund in Norway. The country’s Kingsbay Arctic Research Centre has tied up with India for Arctic expeditions and explorations. S. Bijoy Nandan, Associate Professor at Cochin University is the second person from the university to be a part of the expedition. The eight-member team organized by the National Centre for Arctic Ocean Research (NCAOR) in Goa has scientists as well.
The world’s northernmost marine laboratory is located at Ny-lesund and was opened in June 2005. During the twenty-two day trip, Nandan will be studying and researching on minute organisms on the surface of the Earth and how their genetics are affected by global climate changes.
The Cochin Port Trust in Willingdon Island is planning a mini shipyard for catering to the country’s ship repairing and ship building requirements. It will be located near the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology(CIFT) and Mattanchery wharf. There is already a dry dock and ship repairing yard in the area.
This new venture will attract a lot of ships and cruises to dock here for repair. It will add a lot of employment opportunities for locals.
Planning to develop inter-tourist ties between India and Uzbekistan, the two countries have signed a contract for the same, in New Delhi, recently. According to Union Tourism Minister Sahai, the institutes of hotel management and food craft institute under the Ministry of Tourism can be utilized by Uzbekistan for their human resource development.
Tourists and media personnel are the ones that help to promote tourism in a country quickly. These two groups will be helping both the countries to develop their tourism potentials. Joint programmes and events are planned to be conducted. Offices also will be set up in both countries to facilitate easy access and exchange of information.
Besides, souvenirs, brochures and travel knicks-knacks will be available for travellers, and tour operators and agencies are going to visit to promote tourism between the two countries.
More than a hundred countries and over 32,000 museums across the globe are vying to out-do each other this May 18. That’s the day celebrated all over the world as International Museum Day. ICOM has announced ‘Museums and Memory’ as this year’s theme. Memories are a large and significant part of a museum – the memories of a museum keep the life, culture and language of a community alive through the artifacts displayed and installed.
Five broad topics for this year’s activities are Care and access to collections and documents; Museums’ history; Forgotten memory; The link between memory, community and identity, including family identity. The International Museum Day is celebrated differently in various countries. Some museums have organised large-scale programmes, activities, competitions, seminars, events and fairs.
In India, in a country that boasts scores of museums and archeologically important buildings, there will be many programmes. The Archaeological Survey of India, Mattanchery Palace Museum, will celebrate the day with lectures and history talks. Renowned historians and scholars will interact with students of history and the public. The ASI will also open the new ticket counter at the Archaeological Museum in Mattanchery on that day. International Museum Day has been celebrated since 1977, around 18 May.
The DLF IPL T20 2011 is round the corner. It will start in another twenty-four hours’ time. There are two new teams this year – Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers Kerala. The KTK team will be facing Royal Challengers Bangalore in its opening match at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, in Kochi, on April 9.
The promotional video, shot at the Varappuzha backwatrers, was unveiled recently. It was conceptualised by Bollywood film maker Priyadarshan and the music composed by music director Ousepachen. The two-minute video transposes cricketing movements and Kerala’s traditional martial art of kalaripayattu in a beautiful manner. You can get more than just a glimpse of Kerala’s official animal, the elephant.
The week-long Cochin International Film Fest is on! Organised by Heart Light Association and Kerala State Chalachithra Academy, the festival was inaugurated by Kalki Subramaniam, transgender activist and founder of Sahodari group. The main venue of the event is the Kanoos theatre in Ravipuram.
A Mobile Film Festival, screening movies from the third world countries, was conducted by the two organizations last week. The current one has been seeing many participants and attendants. As the venue is centrally located, it is easy for tourists to visit, too.
