KOCHI: The water transport sector seems to have hit rock bottom in the district, with the Covid-19 pandemic keeping people away from boats too. If nine schedules were operational earlier, only three services run now from Ernakulam Boat Jetty.
This has caused a huge loss to the cash-strapped State Water Transport Department (SWTD) with daily revenue plummeting by over Rs 75,000 in the district. A senior official with SWTD said the boats, on most days, run with very few passengers.
“With Fort Kochi being declared a containment zone, we had to stop services to the area. At present, only three schedules are operational - Ernakulam to Vypeen (two services) and Ernakulam to Mulavukad (one). Of the very few passengers, the majority are employees of Cochin Port. With buses keeping off roads, boats are their only means of transport. For the same reason, we have to continue with the services,” he said.
The official added that the daily revenue has fallen steeply. “Sundays used to witness a huge crowd. But we have barely seven passengers these days. Services during peak hours too have just seven to eight passengers. If our daily revenue before Covid-19 outbreak was between Rs 75,000 and Rs 1 lakh, now it hovers around Rs 10,000 - Rs 15,000. The services are a huge burden to the department,” said the official.
The department had earlier conducted services on Vyttila-Kakkanad, Ernakulam -Varapuzha,Ernakulam - Mattanchery (2 boats) , Ernakulam-Fort Kochi (2 boats) and Ernakulam-Vaikom (Vega 120), all of which have been stopped after the outbreak of the pandemic. It was on May 20 that the services resumed after a gap of two months following lockdown.
Projects stalled
The SWTD’s plans to roll out fibre boats to replace the existing ones have been stalled due to a fund crunch. The plan was to introduce Fibre Reinforced Boats by March, which require less maintenance and operational costs. But, according to sources, the project has run into rough weather due to lack of funds. “Even otherwise, there were fund issues.
The Covid outbreak has worsened the situation. The fate of the floating boat jetty is more or less the same,” said an official with the department. The plan was to construct a floating boat jetty at Kamalakkadavu. “Passengers had complained about how the high-speed boat Vega, from Ernakulam to Vaikom, is finding it difficult to anchor at Kamalakkadu due to tidal variations. That was when the project was mooted, but we don’t see the project materialising anytime soon,” the official said.