NECORD reinstates ferry service to Muttur village

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 October 2003, 10:34 GMT]
Raalkuli, a Tamil village in Muttur division, south of Trincomalee town, which is separated from the mainland by Mahaweli gangai, is to get a ferry service from Tuesday after nearly ten years, residents of Ralkuli said.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded North East Community Restoration Development (NECORD) project has come to the rescue of the people by supplying with a ferryboat. The ferry service is to be inaugurated by the ADB Country Director Mr.John R.Cooney on October 21st morning around 10.30 a.m. and NECORD Project Director Mr.T.Lankaneson will be the guest of honour, sources said.



a group Raalkuli residents are seen Muttur side of the Mahaweli gangai that separates Raalkuli from mainland



Raalkuli is a remote and backward village in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) held area in the Muttur division where three hundred families with about one thousand five hundred persons live.

Most of the villagers are engaged in fishing, animal husbandry and cash crop cultivation, sources said.

Ralkuli is separated from adjoining villages by Mahaweli gangai. Earlier there was a ferry service maintained by the Road Development Authority. Following the outbreak of ethnic violence nearly ten years ago and subsequent displacement of Ralkuli villagers, the security forces discontinued the service, civil sources said.

As former residents have now resettled the ferry service has become an urgent need for the people of Raalkuli to reach Muttur town to market their produce and meet their daily needs.

The villagers now depend on a canoe run by an individual to cross the river. Since the canoe can transport less than eight people at a time and the service is irregular, the students, government servants, patients and other residents faced long delays in crossing the river, sources said.




Ralkuli residents are waiting for the canoe to take them to Muttur side