It might be a watershed year for water transport in Kerala with the State set to make a decisive shift from roadways to waterways to transport cargo and commuters.
The most prominent will be the much-awaited commissioning of the Bekal-Kovalam waterway this fiscal, as was announced in the State Budget. Responding to this, a high-ranking Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) official said the agency had already developed National Waterway III (NW III) between Kollam and Kozhikode. The Kovalam-Kollam and Kozhikode-Bekal stretches are in the last lap of being developed by the State.
On inadequate patronage for NW III, he said the State must encourage shifting the transportation of non-perishable cargo from roadways to waterways. “Operators must avail the subsidy of ₹1 per tonne (or passenger) per km. On our part, we are building a terminal near Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited (KMML), Chavara, to receive vessels that ferry cargo from Kochi. A terminal at Kottayam port too will become functional shortly.”
Electric, solar vessels
The budget also focuses on a paradigm shift from diesel-powered ferries to solar and electric boats. This could well be because of the rock-bottom energy expense of less than ₹200 per day for India’s first solar ferry that shuttles between Vaikom and Thavanakadavu. The expense on diesel-powered ferry was ₹5,000.
Sandith Thandasherry, a naval architect who pioneered the solar ferry, said he hoped that the roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) ferry service to transport vehicles and commuters from Vaikom, that was announced in the budget, would be either solar or a mix of electric and solar-powered.
On its part, the State Water Transport Department (SWTD) is elated at being given ₹28 crore to purchase modern ferries and to upgrade its repair yards.
“A sum of ₹21 crore will be used for purchasing two dozen ferries, including partly-AC ones. Our fleet of steel ferries in Kochi will thus be replaced with fibre boats. Steel is prone to corrosion due to Kochi’s proximity to the sea,” said SWTD Director Shaji Nair.
Another ₹3 crore will be used to repair existing ferries, while ₹2.5 crore will be spent to used to augment infrastructure at workshops, and the rest to maintain boat jetties.
Cruise vessel
The city-based Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINC) has been allotted ₹15.50 crore. “A part of this will be used to purchase Andromeda , a cruise vessel capable of going on international tours. It will be based in Kochi, where our first cruise ship Nefertiti is based,” sources in the agency said. The rest of the funds would be used to build a terminal at Fine Arts Avenue here to berth cruise vessels and to establish a dry dock in Beypore to repair vessels, they added.
