Kochi Water Metro Limited (KWML) is gearing up to open tenders shortly for the second lot of 30 electric-hybrid Water Metro ferries, in order to step up operations from the mainland to islands in the backwaters.
These 50-passenger ferries will be smaller than the fleet of twenty-three 100-passenger ferries, the contract of which had been awarded to Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL). The shipyard has delivered a total of 12 ferries so far, which have been deployed by KWML on the High Court-Vypeen and Vyttila-Kakkanad routes, while the rest are expected to be delivered during the coming months. Each of the 100-passenger ferries costs approximately ₹7.36 crore. The 50-passenger ferries will have specifications similar to the first lot.
Back in 2022, the metro agency had readied plans to invite tenders for a total of fifty-five 50-passenger ferries that were to operate alongside their twenty-three 100-passenger counterparts in the Greater Kochi area. Aimed at ensuring feasible operations, it was decided in 2023 that KWML would place orders for 30 such vessels, while the rest of the 25 ferries (the third lot) would be operated on a public-private partnership (PPP) revenue-sharing basis.
Official sources said there were so far no takers for operating the third lot on a PPP basis, although they had approached a prominent public sector bank and an online taxi aggregator firm, among others. “They are reluctant to invest in such a capital-intensive project. The metro agency’s aim was to lessen its burden of capital investment since companies or institutions would be able to sponsor and operate them on a revenue-sharing basis, including in the tourism sector.”
As per plan, the 25 vessels could even be deployed to operate chartered trips, and need not necessarily operate as ferries.
Record footfall
Meanwhile, a whopping 16,000 people travelled in Water Metro ferries on December 31, the maximum on any given day since their launch in April 2023. The average daily footfall was 10,000 in the initial few weeks after the launch. Water Metro sources attributed the record patronage to the extending of operating hours of the ferries and metro trains on the day, up to the early morning hours of January 1.
