Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) would ink an MoU with National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) in a week’s time, to conduct a three-month-long study to identify measures in order to increase patronage in Kochi Metro, and its waterway extension - the Kochi Water Metro.
While over one lakh people commuted in Water Metro ferries that were commissioned over a week ago, Kochi Metro that was commissioned in 2017 has been struggling to attain the one lakh commuters per day figure.
Sources said that officials of NATPAC, whose Kochi regional office began functioning in April, held meetings with their metro counterparts in order to suggest ways to increase footfalls in the two modern, air-conditioned systems of public transport.
Emphasis will be given to seamless first and last-mile public-transport connectivity from metro stations and Water Metro terminals, mainly through a network of electric autos and buses. This, hewing out of adequate parking lots and bringing all modes of commute under the Kochi-1 pre-paid mobility card, would make the metro and water metro more commuter friendly, they said.
These and other measures that could be adopted based on the outcome of the study are expected to help bring about the desired social benefits of the two projects to commuters, thus ensuring a win-win situation for commuters as well as different modes of public transport. The study would cover aspects such as travelling patterns of commuters and transit-oriented development (TOD) in the Greater Kochi area. The tourism potential, especially of Water Metro, too will be assessed, it is learnt.
Stakeholders are hopeful that its ferries will continue drawing tourists from other States and commuters who want to avoid the Civil Line Road when it is barricaded for constructing Kochi metro’s Kakkanad extension.
