Water sports back at Dimna - Revamped activities centre opens after four years

Tata Steel vice-president Sanjiv Paul (left) takes a boat ride on Dimna Lake on Friday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

The placid waters of Dimna Lake stirred as motor boats, which had gone on snooze mode, whirred back to action.

After a gap of four years, water sports staged a comeback in the vast, scenic lake with Tata Steel vice-president Sanjiv Paul inaugurating the all-new centre that conducts the activities at Dimna on Friday.

Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) will now handle the centre, which was earlier run by Tata Steel Officers’ Beach Club (TSOBC). To start with, the renovated water sports centre will cater to employees of Tata Steel and other Tata companies. It will be later thrown open to public depending on the response.

“People, especially adventure junkies, have enjoyed water sports in Dimna lake for long. Our centre used to conduct these activities, which remained suspended for four years. Now, we have revived them for the better. Water sports are recreational activities, but they can be made competitive too. The company will try its best to add a competitive edge to it. But it will take time as a lot of planning is needed,” Paul said.

At present, the water sports centre boasts quite a number of gear — two motor boats, as many number of rowing boats, one rubber raft, a Canadian canoe and a paddle boat.

Paul promised to add more, again depending on the response from people.

“We also have diving and surfing equipment. If the response is satisfactory, more like banana boats, inflatable kayaks, water scooters and parasailing gear will be procured,” secretary of P.P. Kapadia said.

TSOBC was successfully running the show at Dimna Lake till interest among company staff started waning. With things now under TSAF’s control, the situation is changing for better. “The horse riding school at Circuit House Area is doing extremely well after TSAF took it over from TSOBC. The school has opened doors to general people and the membership count has crossed the 100 mark. We expect a similar turnaround at the water sports centre,” a company official said.

Shedding light on the charges, Kapadia said the employees would have to cough up a one-time membership fee of Rs 250. Thereafter, they will be charged Rs 300 for using a six-seater motor boat for half an hour. The rate for rowing and paddle boats (4 persons capacity), Canadian canoe (one person) and rubber raft (12 persons) is Rs 50 for half an hour.

Membership registration starts from Saturday.