KWML mulls extending Water Metro ferries to nearby districts; but tender to procure 15 Water Metro ferries not finalised

Effort are on to extend the ferry services to nearby Alappuzha, Nedumbassery and Kodungalloor

Amid the effort to extend the Kochi Water Metro ferry services to nearby Alappuzha, Nedumbassery and Kodungalloor, the Kochi Water Metro Limited (KWML) is unable to finalise the tender to procure a fleet of fifteen 100-passenger capacity ferries.

This has been attributed to the delay in getting the sanction from German lending agency KfW. Apart from the Kumbalam-Alappuzha route, the other potential long-term routes to operate the ferries in the project’s initial phase include the Aluva-Nedumbassery and Paravur-Kodungalloor corridors. It is expected that tourists too would take a trip on the ferries in these routes, just like in the High Court-Fort Kochi corridor.

While a total of 78 electric-hybrid ferries were envisaged under the Water Metro project, orders were placed with Cochin Shipyard for the first lot of 23 ferries.

Of this, 18 were delivered so far, while the balance five ferries are expected to be handed over in the coming months, it is learnt.

The KWML had floated the tender to procure 15 of the 30 electric-hybrid ferries that it envisaged in phase-1 of the project. These ferries were expected to provide water transport connectivity from the mainland to 10 islands around Kochi. They could also operate to Alappuzha and to the two other destinations, in the long term if everything worked as per plan, sources said.

A canal might in addition have to be developed in order to enable transit in the Aluva-Nedumbassery corridor. The extensions are in the proposal stage and would depend on the outcome of a feasibility study, it is learnt.

Earlier this year, the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) began a feasibility study to explore the viability of ushering in Water Metro ferry services in Kollam, and at 17 locations in other States. This was after the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways assigned the agency with the task. Subsequently, the metro agency constituted an in-house committee to lead the initial works.