Passengers upset as deadline for dredging premises of Mattancherry boat jetty ends

West Kochi Passengers’ Association seeks legal action due to delays in dredging Mattancherry Boat Jetty, impacting commuters and tourism.

The West Kochi Passengers’ Association would approach the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) and the Kerala High Court, since uncertainty looms large about the completion of dredging State Water Transport department’s Mattancherry Boat Jetty premises, it is learnt.

The contractor deployed by the Irrigation department was unable to complete the work that had been awarded for ₹4.50 crore, despite the expiry of the revised deadline on Sunday.

The inordinate delay in dredging is continuing even as the boat jetty building there was belatedly renovated about a year ago. Back then, it had been decided to complete the dredging by March 1.

“The delay resulted in ferries not being able to call at the jetty since 2018, and commuters from the region are fed up with the apathy of the stakeholders concerned. In this situation, we have no other option but to approach the SHRC and the High Court,” said Padmanabha Mallya, secretary of the passengers’ association. “Not everybody will be able to afford the fare that Water Metro ferries would levy for the Ernakulam-Mattancherry trip, even if their ferries begin calling at the adjacent Water Metro ferry that is nearing completion,” he added.

The association had earlier this year petitioned the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), seeking Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s attention to the inordinate delay in dredging the premises of the Mattancherry Jetty.

The Irrigation department’s delay in dredging the SWTD jetty premises had resulted in residents of Mattancherry and nearby areas, tourists and traders being forced to either commute in buses through crammed roads, or alight from ferries at Customs Jetty in Fort Kochi and then depend on other modes of commute to reach their destinations in Mattancherry for the past over six years. The Mattancherry Water Metro Action Council too had decried the department’s delay in dredging the jetty premises, since this also affected the number of tourists visiting the locale.