Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) and the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) are yet to ink a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a critical survey that had been planned earlier this year to identify ways to improve patronage in metro trains and Water Metro ferries and to revise the metro’s fare structure.
Critics have been pointing out that the delay has come at a time when the metro’s loss continued to hover at approximately ₹1 crore a day and the average daily footfall was yet to cross the 1-lakh mark despite the worsening traffic hold-ups on most arterial roads beneath the metro corridor. The patronage for Water Metro ferries too is yet to reach sustainable levels, mainly because their operations are confined to just the High Court-Vypeen and Vyttila-Kakkanad corridors and the Cochin Shipyard’s delay in rolling out ferries. The patronage for the ferries on Friday was 2,279, while they carried a total of 9.25 lakh passengers since their launch in April.
The two agencies were scheduled to ink the MoU in May to conduct a three-month-long study to identify measures to enhance patronage for the two modes of public transport. The core aspects of the survey were to study the travelling patterns of commuters and transit-oriented development (TOD) in the Greater Kochi area through which the metro and its waterway extension are envisaged. It was also slated to estimate the Water Metro’s tourism potential, the need for seamless first- and last-mile public transport connectivity from metro stations and Water Metro terminals with the help of e-autos and e-buses, and the hewing out of adequate number of parking lots.
