The Fort Vypeen Janakeeya Kootayma, a collective of organisations that are on the forefront of agitation seeking improvement in transportation and other amenities in Goshree islands, submitted a mass memorandum to Mayor Soumini Jain on Thursday, seeking the introduction of a third roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) vessel on the Vypeen-Fort Kochi route.
The service is crucial in averting a shutdown in transporting people and vehicles between the two areas if either of the existing ro-ro ferries breaks down, said Majnu Komath, chairman of the NGO. “I once again apprised the Mayor of the need for at least one more vessel in the busy corridor. She concurred with this and said three or four such vessels would be of much help to commuters on the stretch,” he added.
“I also spoke about how people are not benefiting optimally from the two vessels since KSINC is not operating them for 16 hours. The two vessels are available only for 12 hours, said to be because of inadequate number of trained people. The vessels must operate at least from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. We had demanded a spare vessel even before the two vessels were introduced by the Kochi Corporation,” Mr. Komath said.
Commuters get stranded, and serpentine queues of vehicles form on both jetties during peak hours whenever vessels break down. Hundreds of people were stranded when both the vessels broke down two days ago, said Johney Vypeen, convenor of the NGO.