Nehru Trophy Boat Race today

By Our Staff Reporter

ALAPPUZHA, AUG. 11. The tranquil environs of the Punnamada backwaters will come alive on Saturday afternoon when the 48th Nehru Trophy Boat Race gets under way. Speeding snakeboats will set the waters on fire amidst cheers from thousands of spectators thronging the shores.

A total of 40 boats, including 16 snakeboats, are competing in various categories. The programmes will commence at 2 p.m. with a water pageantry, featuring all the participating crafts. The Union Minister of State for Tourism, Mr. Ananth Kumar, and the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court, Mr. Justice A. V. Savant, will be the chief guests. The Tourism Minister, Mr. E. Chandrasekharan Nair, and the Youth Affairs Minister, Mr. K. Radhakrishnan, also will be present on the occasion.

Going by the pace of the trials, the first heats of snakeboats should witness fierce competition between Karichal of the Alleppey Boat Club and Cheruthana of the Cheruthana Boat Club.

The second heats would most probably centre around a stiff fight between Alappad Puthen Chundan of the Alleppey Town Boat Club and Ayaparambu Valiya Divanji of Friends Boat Club, Chennamkary.

In the third heats, Nadubhagom of Puthooran's Boat Club and Payippad of the Kumarakom Boat Club are likely to fight it out and in the fourth heats, Champakulam of Friends Boat Club would most probably lead the pack. However, surprises by some low- profile boat clubs cannot be ruled out entirely.

Live telecast on DD, Asianet

The live telecast of the 48th Nehru Trophy Boat Race promises to be an exciting affair with both the Asianet and Doordarshan going all out to deliver the thrill of the event to millions of viewers across the globe for the first time ever.

The presence of Asianet, the first private satellite television channel granted permission to telecast the race live, has imparted a sense of competition to the whole exercise as it has offered to include on-the-spot interviews with subject experts, audience reaction and analyses apart from showing episodes pertaining to the different aspects of the event.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Doordarshan, which would be using five cameras at different points, is to start its live telecast on DD1, DD4, DD International and DD Sports from 2-20 p.m. onwards. The Government channel is reportedly directly uplinking the signal from the spot to the satellite through SNG system.

An OB van has reached the spot. A DD team has been making preparations in this regard for the past few days. Although, Doordarshan was slated to cover the event live last year also, it backed out at the last moment as it had to sent a team to cover the solar eclipse elsewhere.

The Nehru Trophy Boat Race Society is pinning all hopes on this year's live telecast of the event to boost the flagging standards of the race from next year as it expects more sponsors to come forward.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : Antony for consensus on organisational issues
Next     : Antony rules out truck with BJP and CPI(M)