ROADS and bridges may have reduced the number of boat passengers, but there are still quite a lot of them in the water-covered areas of Kuttanad depending solely on water transport. Last month, I took a boat from Alappuzha to Kottayam. The ticket fare was Rs 10, the cheapest one can get in any mode of transport available today. The boat, owned by the State Water Transport Department (SWTD), took nearly three hours to reach Kottayam, covering 23 km. The boat was almost full with students, workers and office-goers. I sat at the entrance, looking at a black board that showed the boat’s registration number and date of fitness expiry. The registration number was given, but the expiry date was missing. I didn’t mind it. There was an old fire extinguisher near me and a couple of ring buoys in the shelf above.
As our boat cruised past a number of house boats and other boats before reaching the
Vembanad Lake, I saw how ‘privatisation’ works here. The lake was full of private tourist boats.
The SWTD, formed in 1968 as a major inland water transport operating agency to concentrate on passenger transport in the water-covered areas of Travancore and Cochin, is now running on huge loss. Statistics show a daily expenditure of 4.73 lakh during 2007-08, while only Rs 1,20,848 is collected per day. It has 14 station offices with a fleet strength of 60 boats, which are operated in 76 routes, covering a distance of 1,500 km per day and ferrying about 30,000 people.
If the SWTD is running the way as it is today,
we will soon miss these boats. Senior officers say profit can be made if the government
addresses the problems. “We have got a new
director now. We are planning several tourism-related services,” says a senior SWTD officer.
saju.madhavankutty@gmail.com