Kerala - Kochi   

Woes of boat passengers mounting

KOCHI: Poorly maintained and dangerously crowded boats, curtailment of services owing to a shortage of vessels and unscientific ferry schedules — these are just a few of the complaints raised by thousands of passengers who travel daily from west Kochi and nearby islands to the city.

Huge traffic snarls and the deplorable condition of roads have forced many commuters to shift to boats. Ferries charge one-third the bus fare and reach the destination in one-fourth the time taken by road. But the Water Transport Department has cut down the number of boat services in many sectors.

S. Padmanabha Mallya, secretary of Pashchimakochi (West Kochi) Passengers’ Association, recently approached the State Human Rights Commission, alleging that boat passengers endured sub-human conditions.

He said over 250 passengers were forced to crowd ferries that could carry only up to 150 people. “This is because there are just three boats in service on the Ernakulam-Fort Kochi route. A similar inadequacy has affected passengers to Mattancherry, Vypeen and Willingdon Island. Boats to Vypeen must touch Fort Kochi too, so that passengers from both places benefit,” he said.

Most passengers, according to him, are willing to pay a slightly higher fare, if sufficient number of ferries is operated on time and they are assured of a safe journey. He demanded that the department restore the services to the Kamalakadavu and Customs boat jetties in Fort Kochi and the Matsyafed jetty in Mattancherry during peak morning and evening hours. The department had cut many services to west Kochi, citing unavailability of boats.

The wooden boats, many of them over 20 years old, are in disrepair most of the time. Though their repairs cost many times the money needed to maintain steel and fibre boats, the department, headless for around two years, has been allegedly slow in inducting modern boats to its fleet.

Alex Paul, Director-in-charge of the department, said that six steel boats, built by Steel Industrials Kerala Ltd., would join the fleet in three months. Though the department was keen on inducting 10 fibre boats built by the Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation over a year ago, the Chief Inspector of Boats had not granted licence to them so far. Steel and fibre boats were easier to maintain.

The main jetty in Ernakulam is badly maintained. Every day, thousands of people walk through slush and a narrow and dark entrance to reach it. Worse still, the wooden stakes on which boats are tied when passengers board or alight are missing. The workers now tie the rope around worn-off planks on the jetty’s platform.

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