New Delhi: Kerala is all set to host the Nehru Trophy Boat Race on the Punnamda Lake, near Alappuzha on Saturday (November 10). The Boat Race is named after former prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and is conducted on the second Saturday of August every year. However, the event was postponed this year due to the deadly deluge that the state battled in August.
It is will be the 66th year of the Nehru Trophy Boat Race.
Finally! It’s the day of the 66th Nehru Trophy Boat Race, and the fiery challengers are raring to go. Catch the live action in Alappuzha! Picture courtesy: Gandhi Alpy#RaceToTheRace #66thNTBR pic.twitter.com/dDJIBSNrgR— Nehru Trophy Boat Race (@NehruTrophyNTBR) November 10, 2018
To win the Nehru Trophy Boat Race 2018, as many as 81 boats including 25 snake boats will compete with each other in front of an audience of over two lakh people, including foreign tourists
Actor Allu Arjun will be this year’s chief guest at the today’s event.
The history of the boat race can be traced back to 1952 when the then Prime Minister Nehru visited Alappuzha. Nehru was travelling to the backwater city Alappuzha from Kottayam by a boat through the waterlogged Kuttanad.
Henceforth, the event is celebrated in memory of the then PM’s thrilling travel to the backwaters.
'Chundan Vallam' or the snake boats are the major attraction of the Nehru Trophy Boat Race, which are about 100-138 feet in length. The rear part usually rises to a height of around 20 feet with a long tapering front portion. The shape of the boats resembles a snake, which is why colonial rulers had named it such.
Traditionally each ‘Chundan Vallam’ belongs to one village. For the villagers, the boats are considered and worshipped as a deity, but it is only men who can touch them.
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