Thiruvananthapuram: The floating restaurant (Floatila) at Veli tourist village here is sinking in the backwater. Around half the restaurant building has already submerged in water.

Preliminary investigations revealed that damages to the base of the structure resulted in the restaurant sinking.

It has only been months since the Tourism Department renovated the restaurant spending Rs 80 lakhs.

Water has been flowing inside the restaurant since Tuesday evening. Refrigerator and other equipment have been submerged and some of the items inside have been destroyed.

MLA V. S. Sunilkumar said that the reason for the structure to submerge was a fault in construction. He also added that efforts are being made to retrieve the restaurant and restore it.