Kochi: For the last couple of months, hundreds of residents of Mattancherry are finding it difficult to commute to Ernakulam city and back as the State Water Transport Department (SWTD) has stopped operation of boats to the region frequented by tourists.
The reason is inadequate depth of river bed that prevents anchoring of SWTD boats there. The repeated request of SWTD authorities to the Minor Irrigation department to dredge and deepen the portion fell on deaf ears, forcing residents to travel by road that would cost them an additional one hour instead of the 20-minute ride.
"We're not being able to operate boats to Mattancherry. The services currently terminate at Embarkation (Terminal) jetty," said a senior SWTD official.
The department conducts 25 trips to Mattancherry daily, mainly catering to office-goers and tourists. A recent study using Ecosounder found the depth at Mattancherry jetty and near-by regions only 1.5 metres.
"Our boats with 100 passenger capacity need at least 2.5 metres depth for operation. Many private boats, though, can be operated as they are made of fibre and hence light-weight," he said.
The SWTD boats suffered damages frequently that forced it to stop services to Matancherry. "The propeller, shaft and radar got damaged frequently upon operation to Mattancherry during low-tide period. It would take a minimum three days time to repair a boat, not to mention the repair charges," the official said.
Mattancherry councillor T. K. Ashraf intervened in the issue and agreed to meet dredging expense. "There is no point in waiting further for the Irrigation department to carry out the work. We'll conduct dredging and cleaning of the river bed soon so that boat services can be resumed at the earliest," he said.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINC) is facing a similar issue at Vypeen that prevents it from deploying the second RO-RO vessel in the Fort-Kochi Vypeen route.
"The Dolphin Mooring at Vypeen is constructed unscientifically and posing great difficulty for anchoring of the RO-RO vessel there. Only expert drivers can sail the vessel safely. Though we're giving training to two new drivers, they are yet to exude confidence in navigating the vessel there. Four drivers, who were earlier given training, quit midway," said a KSINC official.
Though the Kochi Corporation rolled out two RO-RO vessels and constructed jetties at Rs 18 crore over eight months back, only one vessel is deployed
