First Water Metro ferry to be handed over to KMRL on Friday
The Hindu
The 50-seater battery-powered electric ferries, each costing over ₹7.30 crore, can accommodate up to 100 passengers at a time.
The first of the 23 Water Metro’s ferries slated to operate through the water bodies in the Greater Kochi area will be delivered by the Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) to the Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) on Friday, after repeated overshooting of deadlines and over 10 months after the inauguration of Water Metro's Vyttila-Kakkanad route.
The 50-seater battery-powered electric ferries, each costing over ₹7.30 crore, can accommodate a total of up to 100 passengers at a time. Five boats that are under construction will be handed over to the KMRL in a couple of months, says a release issued by the metro agency.
The Water Metro ferries that would come with state-of-the-art technology, would have many firsts. It is first time in the world a centrally-controlled integrated water transport system with a large fleet would be battery-powered. The ferries use lithium titanate oxide batteries — which are considered the latest and safest in battery technology, and are capable of fast charging. They can be charged in 10 to 15 minutes’ time, while passengers are alighting/boarding. The super chargers will be installed in floating-pontoon jetties at select locations. The ferries come with generator backup, which will take over their operation automatically, in the event of any failure of the battery system.
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Leaders and legislators hailing from Ballari, which is part of the Kalyana Karnataka region, seem to be a source of much political upheaval in Karnataka, going by recent history. This has been the case since the time illegal mining hit national and international headlines in the 2000s and the place gained reputation as “Republic of Ballari”.
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The former BJP MLA of Udupi K. Raghupathi Bhat claimed on Saturday that he contesting the Legislative Council elections from South West Graduates’ Constituency as rebel candidate made the saffron party field its party leader C. T. Ravi in the biennial elections to the Legislative Council from the Legislative Assembly.