Seven months after Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) abruptly pulled off its feeder service for the city water bus service being operated in the Vyttila-Chittethukara route, the district administration is about to intervene in an effort to restore it.
District Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla said that he would approach KMRL with a request to restore the feeder service between Chittethukara and Infopark that was withdrawn last July.
Ever since the feeder service, which was operated using a 28-seater tempo traveller from Chittethukara boat jetty to Infopark and Civil Station offering free travel to boat commuters during peak hours, was withdrawn, the patronage of the boat service has dropped considerably.
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Despite the fact that it takes only about 20 minutes for the boat to cover the distance between Vyttila and Chittethukara compared to over an hour in bus, the service has fallen out of favour with commuters, which once included hundreds of Infopark employees, collectorate staff and students of a major college at Kakkanad among others.
Commuters now have to either fall back on online cabs or autorickshaws, which are not always available on demand, for their onward journey.
KMRL pulled off the service citing financial viability and an audit objection. Sources said that the agency had no immediate plans to revive the service. Though the possibility of running a paid feeder service was considered, it was dropped eventually as operating such a service was outside the mandate of KMRL.
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Connectivity concerns
However, this has raised connectivity concerns over the ambitious ₹747-crore Water Metro project, envisaged as a waterway extension of Kochi metro, to be commissioned next year.
The project proposes to operate 78 fast and fuel-efficient ferries in 15 routes, covering a total distance of 75 km dotted by 38 jetties.
KMRL’s assurance
KMRL sources assured that the withdrawal of the feeder service was in no way an indication of the agency’s alleged reluctance to provide feeder services for the proposed Water Metro services. Feeder services for the entire Water Metro services would be provided by following tender procedures, they said.
Meanwhile, the State Water Transport Department (SWTD), which operates the Vyttila-Chittethukara service, said that the withdrawal of the feeder service had resulted in the daily collections dropping by over ₹1,000.
The SWTD had some time back written to KMRL requesting to restore the feeder service but to no avail.
Earlier, the peak-hour boat services from Vyttila in the morning were nearly full while the peak evening-hour trips from Chittethukara recorded an average of 60 commuters. Now, this has almost dropped by half.