KOCHI: Plan your journeys between the Kochi airport and the city with ease now as the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) launched feeder services between the airport and the Aluva metro station on Thursday. Managing director of the airport V J Kurien flagged off the electric bus in the presence of KMRL managing director Alkesh Kumar Sharma.
Two buses will conduct a total of 44 services to the airport and back from the Aluva station daily. These include 22 services from the metro station between 5 am and 11 pm and the same number of services from the airport between 5.40 am and 11.10 pm. The fare is fixed at `50 for one side.
Titled Pavan Doot, the services will be conducted at 40-minute intervals, except between 10am and 3pm as the functioning of the airport is restricted during the day time at present, owing to the work at the runway.
Other than the starting point and the destination, there will not be any other stops.Those using the ‘Kochi 1 card’ of the metro can use the same for the feeder service.
“It is a great start to a much-awaited partnership. We thank the Cochin International Airport Ltd for its support,” Sharma said. He said KMRL was planning to increase the frequency of the services in future based on demand.
Sharma also hinted that the launch of the feeder services was an indicator of KMRL’s ambitious plan for extending the Kochi Metro services to the airport in future.
“We have already planned airport connectivity as phase 3. This is the first step towards achieving the goal,” he said.
Kurien said the services will benefit not only metro passengers taking flights but also nearly 12,000 employees of the airport.