Relocating bund and building parallel bridge crucial to extend Water Metro ferries to Infopark

Water hyacinth accumulation on National Waterway-III hampers Water Metro services, prompting demand to relocate Kozhichira Bund near Infopark.

With the frequent accumulation of water hyacinth on National Waterway-III affecting the movement of Water Metro ferries and barges, the demand to relocate the Kozhichira Bund near Infopark towards Manakkakadavu on Kadambrayar River has gained impetus.

The bund that is built each year prior to summer and dismantled before the monsoon by the end of May has also been hampering the extension of Water Metro ferry services towards Infopark. The net result is that the ferries have been terminating trips at the Kakkanad terminal at Chittettukara, that is located well away from the Infopark-Smart City IT hub, ever since their service was launched in the Vyttila-Kakkanad corridor in April 2023.

The operation of Water Metro ferries and barges was affected on Saturday after water hyacinth, accumulated over the months in the Kadambrayar, was washed downstream into NW-III following the rains and the subsequent dismantling of the bund. The services resumed only after the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) deployed a weed-harvester machine.

Kochi Water Metro Limited (KWML) has been citing the need to relocate or permanently dismantle the bund and also to rebuild a bridge near Infopark with one having vertical clearance of 5.50 m, in order to extend its electric-hybrid ferries to Infopark. Since the 1960s, the Kozhichira bund used to be built each year and dismantled before the monsoon, when paddy used to be cultivated on the banks of the Kadambrayar. This was to prevent saline incursion into the paddy fields. With none cultivating paddy, there is little need for the bund, which is now resulting in massive growth of water hyacinth and other invasive species that thrive in fresh water. They also considerably lessen oxygen availability in the river and worsen pollution, said informed sources.

The extension of ferries to Infopark, which would also benefit commuters to the adjacent Smart City campus, is critical since Civil Line Road will shortly be barricaded to construct the viaduct for Kochi Metro’s 11.20-km Kakkanad extension. IT professionals and other commuters could well have relied on the ferries that operate from Vyttila to reach their workplace, rather than get trapped in traffic snarls on roads leading to Kakkanad, they added.

Making matters worse, the PWD’s project to reconstruct the bridge near Infopark with increased vertical clearance and width has reached nowhere although the work was tendered for ₹23 crore. This has been attributed to protests by commuters who are seeking alternative arrangements before dismantling the existing bridge. The deadlock would have to be resolved by building a two-lane bridge parallel to the existing one, before dismantling it and building another two-lane bridge in its place, said official sources.