KOCHI: You disembark at an airport, walk out and, overlooking the taxi cars, get into a boat. It takes you on a cruise through the green landscape and coconut trees to the scenic backwaters and beyond. Pinch yourself. It’s not a dream but soon to be a reality in Kerala, the country’s leading tourist destination.
The Kerala Waterways and Infrastructures Ltd (KWIL), a joint venture of the state government and Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) and which has been entrusted with the task of making the state’s 611-km waterway navigable, has decided to connect airports in Kochi, Thiruvanthapuram and Kannur with the water bodies.
As part of the project, KWIL will connect CIAL with Kochi’s Marine Drive using a boat service. CIAL managing director V J Kurian said work on the project will start soon. As the boat will be fully solar-powered, there will not be any oil spill or threat to riverine ecosystem. The CIAL will revive the ‘Chengal Thodu’, which originates from Periyar and re joins it after flowing through three panchayats and inside the airport.
The Chengal Thodu river will connect the airport with Marine Drive through Periyar and backwaters in Kochi.The authorities recently beautified the rivulet by constructing pillars along its banks to install solar panel.There are also proposals to connect the Thiruvanthapuram and Kannur airports with Chakka water body and Anjarakandy river respectively.
No other state in India can claim such uniqueness of having cruise connection with three international airports once the waterway project becomes operational by 2020 as announced by the state government.
The proposed waterway --- including two national waterway III Kollam-Kottapuram and Kottapuram-Kozhikode stretch, and state waterways passing through almost all districts except the hilly ones --- is expected to play a vital role in developing cargo movement through waterways and boost Kerala’s tourism
sector.