Kochi: Shortly after S K Pyarilal, former Head of Cusat’s Ship Technology Department and member of the B R Menon Committee on Boat Safety, raised safety concerns on the country’s first solar boat planned in Tavanakadavu-Vaikom section, the firm entrusted with the project rebutted his claims by terming them as “baseless and silly”.
Pyarilal had questioned the move by the State water Transport Department (SWTD) to make a solar-powered boat at Rs 2 crore to be deployed as a passenger vessel in the Tavanakadavu-Vaikom route.
“Solar power can only be a stand-by and battery power is deteriorating power. This means the boat will stop in the middle of the lake when there is no sunlight, go out of control due to strong undercurrent and will lead to a catastrophe While the government firm SILK produces steel boats of the same passenger capacity (75 persons), the solar boat cost Rs two crore,” he said.
Sandith Thandasherry, CEO, Navgathi Marine Design and Constuctions Pvt Ltd, however, rebutted the claims. “Solar ferry is equipped with two independent motors and battery bank.
Under normal conditions the motors run at 50% of load. In an emergency situation where one of the motor stops, we can use the alternate propulsion system which have an independent battery bank and solar modules,” he said.
The boat schedule is planned in such a way that there are regular intervals for charging solar batteries. “It can run about three hours in the morning. In the noon, there would be two hours break.
The total running hours will be six hours (24 trips). Further the crew can see dashboards in the navigating console displaying the state of charge of the battery,” Sandith clarified.
On the cost, he said a similar size of solar ferry built in France cost Rs 7.56 crore as lithium batteries used are six to eight times costlier than normal lead acid batteries. The price of such a solar ferry build in India would be closer to Rs 2.5 Cr.
NavAlt decided to undertake this project at 1.72 Cr, without margin, since this is first of its kind in India, he said.
