In a move that took many by surprise, the Cochin Shipyard Ltd. (CSL) has shipped two ferries that were built for the Kochi Water Metro to Uttar Pradesh for being operated in Ayodhya and Varanasi by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI).
They were from the lot of 23 ferries for which Kochi Water Metro Limited (KWML) had placed orders to be operated from the mainland to 10 islands in the Greater Kochi area. Another six such electric-hybrid ferries will be built at Hoogly Cochin Shipyard Ltd., a subsidiary of the CSL in Kolkata. Their delivery process will begin in June and will in all probability be deployed in Ayodhya, Varanasi, Mathura and Guwahati, it is learnt.
