KOCHI: The Kochi Water Metro is sailing unhindered when it comes to commuter patronage. As it gears up to celebrate its second anniversary later this month, the facility is closing in on the coveted milestone of having served four million passengers.
“We expect to register total commuter ridership of four million passengers by April 8, going by the average daily ridership. As of April 1, 3,949,007 passengers (39.49 lakh) took the Water Metro ever since operations started on April 26, 2023,” Chief Operating Officer of Kochi Water Metro Sajan P John told TNIE.
Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially inaugurated the country’s first water metro system on April 25, 2023, commercial operations started only the next day.
While the sustainable transportation mode moved at a comparatively slower pace when it came to commuter patronage, it gathered momentum in the last financial year. The Water Metro took seven months to get to one million passengers and almost the same period to get to two million.
However, it hit the three million-mark in the next four months (18 months since April 2023) and is set to touch the four million mark within 24 months of launch. The Water Metro is also eyeing to achieve operational break-even soon. “Our next goal is operational break-even which we expect to achieve upon starting the new service on the High Court-Mattancherry route next month,” Sajan said.
The average daily ridership crossed the 6,000-mark last October. To achieve break-even, the daily collection should touch Rs 2.5 lakh, which translates to an average daily ridership in excess of 7,000.
Of the 23 battery-powered electric vessels, the KWML received the 19th boat recently.
“Now, we can manage the High Court-Mattancherry service with the 23, 100-passenger capacity vessels. The service on the new route will begin as soon as the terminal construction work, which is in the final stage, is over. We have also extended the service terminating at South Chittoor to Eloor and Cheranalloor. Now, a single boat can cater to commuters till Eloor,” Sajan said.
Currently, the 19 Water Metro ferries operate on five routes: HC to Fort Kochi, HC to Vypeen, HC to South Chittoor, South Chittoor to Cheranalloor, and Vyttila to Kakkanad. Under the first phase of the Kochi Water Metro project, it is proposed to connect 38 terminals on 15 identified routes over 76 km, by operating a total of 78 battery-electric-hybrid boats.
Ridership in Vyttila-Kakkanad section goes up
The introduction of ‘Metro Connect’ buses, including in the Kakkanad Water Metro Terminal-Infopark section, has resulted in an increase in ridership in the Vyttila-Kakkanad water metro services
“We have registered a 10% growth in ridership, which was in the 1,400-1,600 range, post introduction of the AC electric feeder buses in the Kakkanad-Infopark route. The frequency of the boat services has been increased to one boat every 20 minutes,” said Sajan P John, Chief Operating Officer of Water Metro
The daily ridership in the e-feeder buses has increased to 1,000 passengers from around 220 commuters per bus