KOCHI: The picture at the state water transport department’s Mattancherry terminal is one of painful irony. On the one hand, boat services during low tide have been crippled by silt accumulation in the channel. On the other, the very vessel meant to solve the problem — a dredger — has been sitting idle at the jetty for the last four months.
The massive, immobile piece of equipment is not just a symbol of bureaucratic paralysis; it is a direct obstacle to hundreds of daily commuters.
“For the last four months, passengers have had no choice but to negotiate the stationary dredger just to get on an SWTD boat. This has meant climbing over or making their way around the machinery — a dangerous manoeuvre, especially for elderly, women, children, and those carrying luggage,” rued M M Abbas, president of the West Kochi Passengers Association.
Trips getting cancelled
The silting has caused the cancellation of low-tide trips, mostly evening services. The new services of the Kochi Water Metro operate only from 8am to 6pm. Apparently, one of the Water Metro boats got stuck on a sandbar for about two hours during the trial run last month. “The boats require a minimum draft of 1.5 metres for smooth operations. Even that could be problematic because the soil that is stirred up due to propeller action could damage the engines,” an official said.
“Just yesterday [Sunday], the newly launched Water Metro wrapped up its Mattancherry service by 5.30pm, while SWTD scrapped its crucial 7pm and 7.30pm departures. This forced scores of commuters, especially those needing to reach the mainland, to shell out extra money for expensive autos or Uber services, or trek 1.6km to the already packed Fort Kochi Customs jetty,” said Padmanabha Mallya, a resident of Mattancherry.
Final nod still awaited
The dredging has reportedly been delayed by the port authority’s lack of clearance. “We’ve set aside `4 crore for the activity, but haven’t yet received the final nod of the port trust authorities to dredge and then dump the silt in the high seas,” an irrigation official said.
However, SWTD authorities blame the irrigation department of apathy and not taking measures to get the nod.
“The irrigation department doesn’t want to spend the `4 crore. Why has a problem with such a simple, week-long technical solution been allowed to persist for an agonising four months. The silt was deposited following the 2018 floods. We couldn’t operate boats for six long years. Finally, we carried out the dredging ourselves and started boat services. However, the navigation channel is still shallow,” a senior SWTD official said.
