Kankaria Lake boating and water sports have resumed in Ahmedabad with enhanced safety arrangements, including passenger insurance, dedicated rescue boats, mandatory life jackets, round-the-clock ambulance services and a CCTV-linked emergency response centre.
The revised framework provides Rs 10 lakh of insurance cover for every passenger and Rs 2 crore for each boat. Operators must carry twice the number of life jackets required for the passengers on board, with more than 350 jackets to be available at the lake.
One rescue boat will be assigned for every 10 passenger boats. The arrangements also include walkie-talkies, a public announcement system and safety signboards listing dos and don’ts for visitors. Fire and emergency services personnel will remain available to respond to incidents at the recreational facility.
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation standing committee chairman Kamlesh Patel said surveillance and emergency response had been strengthened through CCTV and body cameras. An emergency response centre with a 360-degree view has been established, where Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services personnel will monitor CCTV footage.
The reopening follows a prolonged suspension of boating at Kankaria Lake after the January 2024 Harni Lake tragedy in Vadodara. Twelve children and two teachers died after a boat carrying schoolchildren capsized. The incident led the Gujarat government to introduce a comprehensive boating policy and standard operating procedure for recreational facilities at water bodies across the state.
Before granting permission for the service to resume, the AMC reviewed the operator’s permissions, certificates and insurance policies. The City Waterside Safety Committee approved the arrangements at a meeting held on October 31. NCC Navy officials also inspected the preparations at the lake.
The new system places responsibility across operators, the municipal corporation and emergency services rather than relying only on equipment on individual boats. The prescribed ratio of rescue boats, expanded life-jacket availability and continuous surveillance are intended to improve the speed of detection and response during boating operations.
For visitors, access to the service will now be linked to mandatory safety procedures and the availability of emergency support at the site. The AMC has not provided details in the supplied report on the number of boats permitted to operate at one time, passenger capacity limits or the frequency of future safety inspections.
The next operational stage will be the implementation of the approved safety arrangements as boating and water sports activity resumes at Kankaria Lake. Fire services personnel and the emergency response centre are expected to monitor operations while the service provider operates under the permissions cleared by the AMC.
