Sambranikodi comes alive after a break

Sambranikodi, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the district, is seeing a steady inflow of tourists after being closed for over a month.

The district administration has arranged online booking facility to visit the mangrove-covered island to regulate the number of visitors entering the island at a time .

New counters have been set up at Manalil government boat jetty and Kureepuzha while booking can be done through the website www.

dtpckollam.

com.

According to officials, spot booking facility is also available and the visitors can book in time slots from 9 a.

m.

to 3.

50 p.

m.

The authorities had banned all tourism-related activities in the island as part of introducing extra measures to ensure the safety of visitors.

Though the centre was reopened on Friday and online booking facility was introduced on Saturday, a group of boat operators had refused to resume services.

“The main issue was the new counters as we will get very limited passengers from Manalil and Kureepuzha.

But now DTPC has come up with a rotation system so that all boats will get relatively same income,” said a boat driver.

At present a total of 53 boats are operating services to Sambranikodi and they will not be operating from a singular spot.

“At present 1 to 17 will operate from Sambranikodi while boats 18 to 35 will operate from the second counter near Manalil temple and the rest will operate from Kureepuzha.

After 15 days the first set of boats will go to the second counter at Manalil,” he said.

He added that their another main concern was the safety as one of the current counters is not suitable for taking passengers due to strong winds.

“It will be difficult for passengers to board and disembark if the weather is rainy or windy,” he said.

According to residents, a lot of tourists had to return disappointed as there was no entry during the month of October.

“Tour operators were getting a lot of enquiries as the month had several holidays.

Frequent closures affect local businesses and this weekend the island has come alive after a break.

We are all prepared to welcome more visitors in coming days,” said a resident.

.