2m passengers used Kochi Water Metro in a year

KOCHI: India’s first water metro transport initiative, Kochi Water Metro, marked first anniversary on Thursday, with passenger foofalls recording close to two million. The water metro recorded a foofall of 1,972,247 passengers in its first year of service.

India’s first water metro was launched with nine boats on two distinct routes, namely, High Court to Vypeen and Vytila to Kakkanad, on 25 April last year.

The High Court-fort Kochi route was launched last Sunday.

From two routes the service has grown to a network of five routes with 14 specially designed boats today.

Recently, services commenced to the Fort Kochi terminal, a tourist hotspot in the city.

“In the field of sustainable water transportation, Kochi Water Metro has been able to establish itself as a model. In its first year of operation, more tourists visited Kochi to explore the service, owing to its innovative and distinctive concept. However, Kochi Water Metro’s main goal is to convince islanders to use it for their everyday transportation,” said Loknath Behra, managing director of Kochi Metro.

With its novelty being a major atraction, the Water Metro services were availed more by tourists than daily commuters, according to Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL), which manages the operation.

“Our focus is to encourage the island dwellers of Kochi to use Water Metro for their daily commutation. Though the tickets are priced between Rs20 to Rs40, regular passengers can make use of our trip passes and travel for charges as low as Rs10,” KMRL said in a statement. While it costs Rs18 to reach High Court by bus from South Chittoor, the public can travel the same distance for just Rs10 using the Kochi Water Metro travel pass.

Shortage of boats is a major concern for the company, though new routes have been added to the service.

Works on the terminals at Kumbalam, Paliyamthuruth, Willingdon Island, Kadamakudy and

Matanchery are nearing completion. Public sector undertaking Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) has agreed to deliver five more boats to the KMRL to coincide with the completion of the terminal construction. “Operations on these routes are set to begin in September or October. Cochin Shipyard has promised to deliver five more boats by September,” said Behra, adding that efforts are being made to improve first- and last-mile connectivity.

To atract more daily commuters, KWML is working to improve first and last-mile connectivity, facilitating easier access to and from Water Metro terminals.