Rosily has worked at GHS LP School on Perumbalam for thirty years. First as a student, then as staff. In the 1990s she passed her exams with high marks and wanted to train as a nurse in Kochi. But Perumbalam is an island in Vembanad Lake in Kerala’s Alappuzha district, and the only way to the mainland was the jankar, a diesel-powered ferry running on a fixed schedule. Miss it, and you were stuck. Rosily stayed on the island.
On March 7, 2026, Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the Perumbalam Rainbow Bridge. A bridge the island’s residents had been waiting for over five decades. It stretches 1,157 metres, is eleven metres wide, and features three rainbow-coloured bowstring arches across the lake. It is the longest bridge in Kerala built over a backwater stretch.
Perumbalam is home to around 13,000 people, making it the largest island panchayat in the state. Fourteen wards, 38 roads, schools, hospitals, places of worship. But no way out except by boat. When someone fell ill at night, everything depended on whether a boat was running. Children arrived late at school. Families left the island because daily life had become too unpredictable.
P. Santhosh Kumar drove a jankar. He will lose his job. He says he does not mind. We have all suffered too much, he says.
Land prices on the island have already risen from 50,000 to 300,000 rupees per cent. Families who had moved away are planning their return. On opening day, the first public KSRTC bus crossed the bridge into Perumbalam. For an island that never had a bus connection, that is not a symbol. It is a new beginning.
Sources
- https://www.onmanorama.com/news/kerala/2026/03/07/perumbalam-bridge-inauguration.html
- https://www.onmanorama.com/news/kerala/2026/03/04/perumbalam-rainbow-bridge-inauguration.html
- https://thefederal.com/category/states/south/kerala/kerala-cm-inaugurates-perumbalam-bridge-ending-decades-of-wait-of-island-residents-233215