Fort Queen, the passenger boat of the Kochi Corporation, began trial runs in the Kochi waters on Tuesday.
Officials of the Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINC), which has been contracted for managing the service, successfully operated the boat for close to four hours.
The boat will cover the 300-metre-long Vypeen-Fort Kochi sector in less than five minutes. However, one lap would require around 20 minutes to complete as time has to be allotted for completing the passenger movement in and out of the vessel. The vessel has a seating capacity of 100 passengers, said Cyril V. Abraham, the commercial manager of KSINC.
The boat is expected to operate 54 trips a day.
The civic authorities are planning the formal launch of the boat service on Thursday.
The Congress-led civic administration had come under fire for the delay in launching the service. The service has been planned as an alternative facility for the jankar service which will be suspended for the construction of the mooring facility for the Roll On-Roll Off service of the Kochi Corporation.
