THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The tourism department’s plan to develop the Valya Veli Beach has faced a major setback with the local people and church authorities coming up with stiff objection to the project. With all other beaches in ruins, Valya Veli Beach has turned into a popular attraction for local tourists recently.
With the flow of tourists growing, the tourism department had launched a Rs 3-crore beach area development project to offer more facilities for the visitors including a park, rain shelter, seating area etc.
Fresh objections from the church authorities have halted the project. According to officials, the project is likely to get scrapped as the local people have come up with stiff protests. A senior tourism official told TNIE that the work has been awarded, but the contractor is unable to launch the work because of stiff local protest.
Former tourism minister and local MLA Kadakampally Surendran had launched the project -- ‘Snehatheeram’ -- last year with much fanfare to provide more amenities and infrastructure for the tourists visiting the beach.
With other local beaches including the popular Shankhumkham beach becoming off limits to the public because of sea erosion and rough waves, Valiya Veli Beach started witnessing an increase in the number of visitors in the past couple of years. It is learnt that hundreds of visitors arrive at the beach during the weekends.
“We wanted to provide more amenities and infrastructure for the public and launched the project. At that time, the church authorities were also interested. However, there is stiff opposition now and the issue has turned into a political one. The Opposition doesn’t want to implement the project and they are campaigning against the project among local people. We don’t want to go in for a tussle with the local people. Hence, we have temporarily suspended the project. We will take efforts to convince the public,” said the official.
The church authorities had promised to spare the land under their possession for the development of the beach. “Instead of spending money on such futile projects, the government should take efforts to protect the existing beach and the breakwater at Veli. There is stiff protest among the local people. The beach hosts the annual festival of the church and fisher families use the platform on the beach for drying fish. The beach and the area is currently being used freely by the local fishermen and tourism development would ruin their livelihood as the local people will not get entry once the development happens. They are not ready to hand over the beach to Veli Tourist Village,” said former councillor Veli Varghese.