Kooveri: On New Year’s Day, the locals floated a raft in the river to celebrate Terandikadavam. Here the locals used to travel for kilometers to reach the other side. Later, under the leadership of panchayat member C. Padmanabhan, the locals formed a committee and built a raft. About 50,000 rupees collected by the locals were spent on the raft. Sunija Balakrishnan, president of Chapparapadav Panchayat, inaugurated the raft. C. Padmanabhan presided. KV Sukumaran and KV Bhaskaran, office-bearers of the People’s Committee, spoke.
V.V.Bhaskaran and M.Santosh, who built the raft, were honored.25 years ago, when public planning activities were started in the state, the most noted was the footbridge built by the local people at Terandikadav. The footbridge even became the cover of foreign magazines. But when the bridge collapsed over time, the old canoe was the only way for the locals to reach the other side. The ferry also stopped 8 years ago. The demand to build a permanent bridge here has not yielded results. With the arrival of the raft, the travel woes of the natives will be reduced.