The State Water Transport Department’s (SWTD) fleet of seven steel boats in Kochi will be replaced in six months by modern catamaran vessels made of fibre-reinforced plastic, which provide added comfort and safety, the agency’s director, Shaji V. Nair, has said.
Similarly, the demand to dredge the water body near the Mattancherry boat Jetty is being repeatedly taken up with the Irrigation Department so that ferries can safely call at the jetty. The Irrigation Department has said that the work was recently tendered, he added, at a function held at Fort Kochi to launch a pair of catamaran ferries - the first vessels of their kind from the SWTD stable.
The ferries were launched through video conferencing by Minister for Transport A K Saseendran. They will operate regular trips in the Ernakulam-Vypeen-Fort Kochi-Ernakulam circular route, from Tuesday.
Each ferry has 100 seats and is capable of attaining speed of up to 7 nautical miles (approximately 12 kmph). They have seats similar to that in low-floor buses. Having two hulls, the catamaran ferries offer more safety than their single-hull counterparts in operation now.
“The hulls have different compartments to prevent the vessel from sinking even if water enters any one compartment. In addition, an automatic pump can be activated to pump out the water in case the need arises. The catamaran ferries also have a pair of engines and propellers to prevent them from drifting into the sea if any engine stalls. Five more such ferries will be launched - at the rate of one every month. The ticket fare will be the same as in older ferries,” Mr Nair said.
Costing ₹1.90 cr apiece, the SWTD placed an order to build seven such vessels with Praga Marine, Aroor, in 2019.
The old ferries will be taken to Alappuzha for operation in the backwaters there. “Our fast ferry ‘Vega-120’ that operates in the Vaikom-Ernakulam-Fort Kochi route has resumed operations post the pandemic situation. Its sister vessel is high in demand to ferry tourists on backwater cruises in Alappuzha with food provided by Kudumbashree members,” he said.
K.J. Maxi, MLA, presided over the function.