Rowing club-cop meet: SOPs to be drawn up before activities start

Kolkata: The Kolkata Police will soon come up with a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which all the three rowing clubs based around the Rabindra Sarobar in South Kolkata will have to adhere to before commencement of rowing.

The SOP will be prepared based on the suggestions and deliberations at the meeting between Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goel and the club authorities in presence of senior officials of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), the custodian of Rabindra Sarobar, at Lalbazar on Friday.

All rowing activities at the Lake have been postponed following the unfortunate and unprecedented incident in which two rowers — Pushan Sadhukhan and Souradeep Chatterjee — both students of South Point High School, drowned last Saturday after their rowing boat capsized during a squall.

Mandatory use of light but effective life jackets, third-party certification from competent authorities about the swimming skills of the rowers, and proper knowledge about the weather forecast before activities are likely to be among the SOPs that will be framed by the Kolkata Police.

The rowing clubs have demanded at least one diesel-run motorised speedboat during rowing events as it will take a lot of time for battery-driven rescue boats to rush to the spot in case of an emergency. The KMDA may move the National Green Tribunal with the plea of motorised speed boats for the sake of the safety of the rowers. It has asked the rowing clubs to provide the details regarding the use of such boats in rowing events at Dal Lake in Srinagar, and Hussain Sagar Lake in Hyderabad, which can be placed before the green bench.

"Our priority is to have in place a better mechanism for rowers' safety in the water," Subrata Guha, secretary of Lake Club said. The clubs have been using diesel-run motorised speed boats for prompt rescue operations but it had to be stopped following an order from the NGT and a notice from the KMDA.

Meanwhile, regarding embracing biotechnological solutions for ensuring that the water condition of the Lake is best maintained, the KMDA will be taking up a pilot project by using more than one such technology that has been displayed by stakeholders during a recent workshop.

"Our experts in association with the Water Resources Engineering Department of Jadavpur University will first do a detailed study on various water parameters of the Sarobar

for a period of two-three months before starting the pilot project," a senior KMDA official said.