KOCHI: Commuters taking the State Water Transport Department (SWTD) ferry boats to Fort Kochi have to walk a good 10 minutes to reach the beachside of the famed tourist spot after alighting at the customs boat jetty. This despite the Kochi Water Metro terminal being much nearer to the core area.
Now, the SWTD is set to establish a new floating dock near the Ro-Ro ferry jetty at the main Fort Kochi area to spare commuters the nearly one-kilometre-long walk. The initiative, as part of a healthy competition with the Water Metro, is aimed at luring more commuters, especially tourists, to SWTD boats.
The new facility will be built using the CSML (Cochin Smart Mission Ltd) funds at the underutilised Kamalakadavu boat jetty of the Kochi corporation.
“We’re setting up a floating boat jetty at Kamalakadavu jetty, which is rarely used these days. Talks with the corporation have been finalised. The jetty will facilitate our ferry as well as tourist boats to reach the main area of Fort Kochi,” said SWTD director Shaji P Nair.
At present, a major share of tourists are availing the Water Metro in the High Court-Fort Kochi section to sail to the tourist destination, while SWTD caters more to daily commuters. The two agencies have also seen a steady rise in patronage in recent months.
While SWTD’s average monthly ridership is around 2.25 lakh, daily average ridership in Water Metro is around 6,000. It touches the 10,000-mark on weekends. “We’re sprucing up our infrastructure in the West Kochi region. Renovation of the Mattancherry boat jetty is over while that of the Customs jetty is on,” said the official.
The SWTD could not operate boat services to Mattancherry, another popular tourist destination, for the past six years after large amounts of silt got deposited in the backwater channel. Though the department took up the issue with the irrigation department, the latter allegedly failed to take any concrete action. “The matter has now been taken up at the ministerial level,” a source in the SWTD said, adding that the department intends to resume the services at the earliest.
The latest push comes even as the Water Metro is set to start services in the High Court-Mattancherry section by December end.
Kochi is the first Indian city to have a Water Metro, with the launch of the first vessel, Muziris, in December 2021. The Cochin Shipyard Ltd is manufacturing 23 boats for Water Metro and has already handed over 15 electric-hybrid vessels of 100-passenger capacity.
SWTD too has gone on modernising drive as two more 100-passenger capacity modern boats are expected to join its fleet soon.