Questions remain over Kochi’s CBL track

Kochi: Finally, it required a change of venue to facilitate the successful conduct of the Kochi leg of the Champions Boat League (CBL), even as questions continued to linger over the venue of the event, primarily due to concerns over the shallowness of the ‘race course' at Marine Drive.Unlike the previous years, no dredging was carried out for Season 5 of the Kochi edition of CBL, as the technical committee of the district tourism promotion council (DTPC) decided to shift the race course to the northern end of Marine Drive, instead of the usual central portion.
"The starting point this time was near the Goshree Bridge and the finishing point near the Water Metro High Court terminal. The earlier race course, with the starting point near the High Court terminal and the finishing point near the Ernakulam Boat Jetty, was found to be shallow. A technical team earlier inspected the depth of the race course to avoid the issues faced in the previous years," said Ernakulam DTPC secretary Lijo Joseph.However, the organizers still had to tide over challenges such as strong winds and the threat of low tide as they rushed through the inaugural function to start the Mass Drill and Heats at 3pm, and complete the final race by 5pm. "The threatening factor was the low tide late in the evening, which affected the race course depth. So we insisted on completing the snake boat racing competition by 5pm. Thankfully, the race was completed before the low tide. We convened a meeting with all the stakeholders, including the boat clubs, warning that a delay could affect the final. All of them supported it, and the event was conducted as planned and completed on time," the official added.A snake boat got stuck in the silt deposits along the race course in 2023, and the boat clubs complained about the "influence of external factors last time".Meanwhile, experts and stakeholders expressed dissatisfaction over the non-conduct of dredging for the annual event, urging the organizers to find a permanent solution.M K Sadasivan, a two-time former MLA, who was instrumental in designing the IPL-model event, said he was not happy with the conduct of boat races in Kochi, which "lacks a proper racing course"."Here, luck plays a more crucial role as there is no uniform depth. During the designing of the IPL-model event, we recommended a minimum depth of 3 metres and 50 metres' width for a race involving 3 snake boats. However, the depth at the race course here is not uniform and does not meet the standard set," he said.