Coronavirus | Lockdown spells doom for Kerala’s houseboat sector
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The houseboat operations had been among the many first to come back to a grinding halt after the pandemic began to comb the world in early 2020. The vessels remained anchored for greater than six months earlier than resuming operations in October 2020.
The Punnamada Lake appears to be like nonetheless and serene. There is not any jostling of vessels or chugging sound of engines. In the inside, the palm-fringed backwaters put on a abandoned look amidst an uninspiring quietude. This calmness comes at a worth.
The Statewide lockdown to deal with the unfold of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has put the houseboat sector within the doldrums. The backwater tourism sector as a complete has confronted a number of main setbacks in latest occasions within the type of Cyclone Ockhi, the Nipah outbreak, and back-to-back floods. The houseboat operations had been among the many first to come back to a grinding halt after the pandemic began to comb the world in early 2020. The vessels remained anchored for greater than six months earlier than resuming operations in October 2020.
“It is back to square one”, says Varghese K.T., a houseboat proprietor from Alappuzha. “After all the troubles, the sector was slowly on the path to revival. But the second wave and the subsequent lockdown have dashed all hopes. I have been doing business after raising a bank loan. The repayment has become irregular since the first lockdown. The second lockdown has exacerbated the situation,” Mr. Varghese says.
Thousands of individuals allied with the sector together with houseboat homeowners and workers are looking at an unsure future. The disaster brought on by the pandemic has pushed a number of of them right into a debt entice.
Vinod V., president, All Kerala Houseboat Owners Association says it can take one other two years for the sector to realize normality. The stakeholders have sought the intervention of the federal government to tideover the disaster.
“Although the government has announced a financial package for the tourism industry in August 2020, not many in the houseboat sector received its benefits. Ninety percent of applications for aid under the subsidized loan assistance scheme have been rejected by banks. While a few hundred owners have become eligible for the one-time maintenance grant, others have been left out of it too. A large number of operators have already wound up the business and migrated to new pastures. Those resumed operations after spending huge amounts for the maintenance of boats that remained anchored for several months last year have found themselves in the lurch with the second lockdown,” Mr. Vinod says.
Jobin J. Akkarakalam of the Kerala Houseboat Owners Federation urged the federal government to at the very least waive the license and air pollution management charges throughout the lockdown interval.
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