KOCHI: With year-end festivities gathering pace, those enthusiastically seeking a good time have started to descend on the city in force. For this horde, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and the Cochin Carnival are but added attractions. And the visitors are finding water transport the most convenient option to get to Fort Kochi and Mattancherry, where most of the celebrations are.
Two services cater to this need: Passenger ferries run by the State Water Transport Department (SWTD) and those operated by the Kochi Water Metro. Of late, however, both have come under pressure, in the wake of a higher-than-anticipated crowds this holiday season. With long queues forming, people are being forced to wait for close to an hour to board a boat — longer during peak hours.
Nowhere was this more apparent than at the High Court water metro terminal, where, for most of Saturday, a long queue was seen extending well past the metro building and onto its premises.
“There were nearly 400 people in queue even at 10.30am,” said former journalist Ramesh Mathew, recounting the experience of his daughter. “She had to wait out three services to finally board.”
Elsewhere, at the SWTD terminal, the situation was no different. “This big a crowd at this time of day is unusual. I’ve been waiting for close to 30 minutes now,” said Noushad M, a regular commuter. The chaos comes despite both SWTD and KWML ramping up their services, with more boats deployed and increased frequency.
SWTD running 50 services
An SWTD official told TNIE, “We have added 24 trips to the 26 that were being operated earlier. We are currently running 50 services a day at 20-minute intervals. This is primarily to cater to the holiday crowd heading to Fort Kochi and Mattancherry.”
Of SWTD’s six boats, four operate on the Mattancherry-Fort Kochi route, and two to Vypeen. “In view of the rush, even the service to Vypeen has been augmented to include a stop at Fort Kochi,” the official added. An additional boat — brought in from Aroor jetty — has been employed to streamline operations on the Fort Kochi and Mattancherry routes. “Its trips are scheduled as per requirement.”
The changes came into effect on December 24 and are expected to continue till January 2, 2026. On New Year’s Eve, the SWTD, as in previous years, will run services after midnight to facilitate the safe return of tourists. “Last year, we ran four services from 1 am. This year won’t be any different,” the official said.
On other days, SWTD services run from 4:40 am to 9:30 pm. Each boat can carry 100 passengers, with tickets priced at Rs 6 each.
Water metro at full steam
The scenes witnessed at the High Court water metro terminal had been no different over the last two days. This was despite the transporter running its operations at full steam.
“The interval between trips has been slashed from 25 minutes to 20, thereby increasing daily services to 80. Two more boats have also been added to the four on the Fort Kochi route,” a water metro staff said.
In addition, boats to Vypeen have added a stop at Fort Kochi on their return leg.
A water metro official said they have taken cognisance of the chaos, but there are no plans as yet to introduce more boats to streamline services.