Ambitious Hydrofoil Cruise Vessel project remains a non-starter

KOCHI: The Hydrofoil Cruise Vessel project, poised to be a booster for Kerala’s tourism sector still remains a non-starter. The initiative announced three years ago, planned to connect Kochi with Vizhinjam and Beypore ports.

Though the two Athens-registered vessels were brought to Kochi in July 2016, the delay in obtaining safety certificates from the Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) and the Mercantile Marine Department (MMD) is cited as the reasons for the non-starter of service.

However, Port Minister Kadannappally Ramachandran is optimistic about kickstarting the service soon. “I have inspected the customisation work of the vessel last month. The efforts to get the Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) classification for the vessels and approval from Director General (DG) of Shipping for the service are underway. Though we have officially requested for the approval, no response has been received till date. We are planning to reach out to them soon,” said the minister.

On the other hand, the officials give a different picture. “The project will take a while to be operational. The survey to get the MMD approval is still going on. As Safe Boat Trip Private Limited, the agency which was assigned to initiate the service hasn’t had clarity on when to start the service, the department hasn’t taken up the proposal to construct floating jetties at Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. Still, they can use the existing berth facility at Beypore and Vizhinjam once they commence the service,” said a senior official of the department.

The vessels were shipped here by the agency in response to an expression of interest (EOI) floated by the Ports Department. Last month, the state government has handed over all the assets and liabilities of the department to the Kerala Maritime Board (KMB). “As the department is the only facilitator in the project, we have limitations to be directly involved in the issue. But we are regularly in touch with the firm,” said the official.  Earlier, the Cochin Port Trust has allocated an exclusive berth for the project without remitting any fee and gave space for customising the vessels at a reduced rate.