After water taxis and hop-on, hop-off services, it’s now the turn of the State Water Transport to offer luxury services.
The Kerala State Water Transport Department will soon roll out premium luxury boats in the Vaikom-Ernakulam and the Alappuzha-Kumarakom-Kottayam sectors. The services, which aim at tapping both the passenger and tourist traffic, will be operated with a high-speed passenger ferry boat.
“The boats will have a total seating capacity of 120 seats with air-condition facility for 40 seats, for high-end commuters as well as tourists. We are currently in the process of finalising the technical specifications following which tenders will be placed and the boats are expected to commence service from next year onwards’’, said Shaji.V.Nair, Director, KSWTD.
On receiving approval from the department’s technical committee, the proposal, which takes it cue from the low-floor AC bus concept by the KSRTC, will be submitted to the Finance department.
The double-decker boats belonging to the catamaran-type, will have two engines and propellers as well. Each boat is estimated to cost around Rs. 1.5 crore.
“No passengers beyond the maximum seat capacity will be permitted and the boat will have a small cafeteria. It aims at wooing the executive crowd, especially those commuting to Infopark and other establishments located in and around Kochi’’, explained Dileep Krishnan, a naval architect and member of the KSWTD technical committee.
The department has already completed a survey of routes and prepared a detailed report on technical and financial feasibility of the service.
The average time to cover the distance between Ernakulam to Vaikom is just above 2 hours during peak traffic hours, which can be cut down by at least half an hour by deploying a boat with a speed of around 10 knots.
KSWTD sources said the Vaikom service would start from Ernakulam and will stop at Perumbalam and Chemmanakari jetties before reaching Vaikom. The service will also offer an alternative route to commuters from interior areas of Alappuazha and Kottayam districts to the city.
