Irregular ferry services trouble passengers

KOCHI: With Fort Kochi becoming the most sought after destination in the city during the holiday season, thanks to the ongoing Cochin Carnival and Kochi-Muziris Biennale, irregular ferry services are causing difficulties for tourists and locals thronging the spot.
On Wednesday evening, a crowd of over 200 people were held up at the Fort Kochi ferry jetty for around an hour-and-a-half, as most of the boats reaching the jetty carried passengers to capacity from Mattancherry itself.“The capacity of a boat is 100 passengers. The boats that start from Mattancherry had over 90 passengers and thus a couple of boats went directly to the Ernakulam jetty without stopping at Fort Kochi,” said a ticket vendor at the jetty.
The state water transport department (SWTD) officials said that necessary measures were being taken to meet the transportation needs of the holiday crowd. “The Varapuzha boat service, which is usually used for school kids alone, is now being used for ferrying the Fort Kochi travellers during holidays. Additionally, the boats take cut-trips without following the time schedules so as to increase the frequency of the ferries. The Vytilla-Kakkanad boat will also be used in the Fort Kochi- Ernakulam route in view of the holiday rush on December 31 till 11.45pm,” said SWTD traffic superintendent M Sujith.
However, West Kochi passengers association raised complaints regarding the irregular service of the boats. “For many months now out of the scheduled 61 Fort Kochi trips, many remain cancelled, making the life of daily commuter miserable,” said secretary of West Kochi passengers’ association S Padmanabha Mallya.
But SWTD authorities said that services were cancelled only when boats required repair works. “We do not allow passengers in a boat beyond the capacity,” said senior superintendent of SWTD regional office, K J Barbara.
Low tide and shallow water near the boat jetties are also cited as reason for the cancellation of services. “Dredging near the boat jetties are not done regularly. It creates difficulty for us to bank the boats,” said an operator of the boat service from Mattancherry. The regional office of SWTD has already approached the irrigation department to carry out the drudging works.