Alappuzha: The stage is set for the 65th edition of the  Nehru Trophy Boat Race (NTBR) at the Punnamada lake here which will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at 2 p.m. on Saturday.   The event  will be attended by Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, state ministers T.M. Thomas Isaac, G. Sudhakaran, P. Thilothaman, Kadakampally Surendran, Thomas Chandy, E. Chandrasekharan and Mathew T. Thomas. Last year’s winner Karichal chundan,  which has hit the bull’s eye 15 times,  will be trying hard to retain the trophy against strong contenders, including  Payipaadan chundan,  Vellamkulangara,  Gabriel chundan,  Nadubhagom chundan,  Jawahar,  Anari, Cheruthana, Devas, Mahadevan and Sree Ganesh and Karuvatta.

The galleries and pavilions  with a capacity to accommodate about one lakh viewers have been  erected.  The Nehru pavilion is reserved for VVIPs. State-of- the-art starting system  and a digital platform to  count the time of boats have been installed at the  finishing point.  The public can view the finishing time  through the digital display.   Doordarshan will telecast the race live and AIR will give a running  commentary.

Webcasting will also be done Through http://webcast.gov.in/nehrutrophy Around 2,000 police personnel  will be deployed  with 20 DySPs, 33 circle inspectors and 353 sub- inspectors in the town and Punnamada.   The police will be present in the lake in 40 boats. CCTV cameras have been set up in all parts of the city and shadow police will be deployed to prevent illicit activities.