Tourism stakeholders have sought a safety audit of the floating bridge at Kuzhipilly Beach in Ernakulam district, in the wake of (March 9) Saturday’s incident in which 15 people were injured after a portion of a similar structure collapsed at Papanasam Beach, near Varkala, in Thiruvananthapuram.
Both the floating bridges were inaugurated in December, as part of efforts by Kerala Tourism, Kerala Adventure Tourism Promotion Society (KATPS), and respective district-tourism-promotion councils (DTPCs) to catalyse adventure tourism in the State. A floating bridge at Chavakkad beach had collapsed in 2023.
Expressing the hope that such incidents do not recur, sources in Kerala Travel Mart Society suggested that a safety audit be done since such adventure/beach-tourism activities were in their infancy in the State.
“Almost all adventure-tourism activities have such inherent risks. But thought could be given to permitting lesser number of people to use the floating bridge at a time as it is tough to predict the intensity of waves, which seem to have led to the incident in Varkala,” they said.
Risk factors were inherent in every adventure venture and such incidents must be taken in its stride, said Wing Commander (retd) Unnikrishnan Palat, an adventure-tourism enthusiast. With hindsight, one could find many faults. “The redeeming fact in this is that everyone was wearing life jackets. It means reasonable precautions were taken by the operators. Let’s not kill the spirit of adventure, since people take calculated risks in adventure sports. But no foolhardiness, of course. But measures like suspending operations during high tide can be taken.”
“In my sky-diving career, I took calculated risks 1,700 times and many, in my mountaineering career. I have seen accidents and fatalities. That is the very nature of adventure sports - quite different from ‘eating pudding’,” he said.
The chief executive officer of KATPS Binu Kuriakose spoke of how the society had readied safety guidelines that ought to be adhered to at all the seven floating bridges in Kerala. “Saturday’s incident appears to have occurred when there were unusual high waves and people moved to one side of the bridge.”
As per the guidelines, everyone on the bridge has to wear life jacket, while rescue personnel and boats would be ready standby. An emergency action plan too has been mandated, while visitors have been insured.
The secretary of Ernakulam DTPC Satheesh Miranda said that all the bridges were inspected at periodic intervals by a technical committee comprising professionals. Moreover, these structures are manned by personnel, who were imparted training on life-saving skills in Goa. They have been told not to permit people on the bridge when there were high-intensity waves, he added.
