Kochi: The State Water Transport Corporation (SWTD) would operate special bo-at services in the Ernakulam-Fort Kochi route to cater to people visiting the Kochi-Muziris Biennale from December 12.
“Boat services will be operated in addition to the scheduled ones. We’ll operate a service as and when there are enough passengers. We’ll deploy an additional ferry in the evenings when the rush is expected to be the most,” said a senior SWTD official.
Currently, there are nine boats at the department’s disposal to operate services in the Ernaku-lam-Fort Kochi section. It will deploy the boat, used to conduct the Ernaku-lam-Varapuzha service, from 5.30 pm daily till the mega event gets concluded by March, 29, 2019.
In the previous occasions, the department had come under fire for not operating additional services from the start of the Biennale festive season. The commuters, the majo-rity of whom were touri-sts, were forced to wait for nearly an hour to board boats.
The authorities are expecting the newly-launched fast ferry ‘Vega’ to run packed during the festive season. “Visitors can directly reach ‘Kama-lakadavu’ in the fast ferry which takes only 15 minutes to cover the distance. Normal boats go to the Customs jetty and the commuters will have to walk for another 20 minutes to reach Fort Kochi main junction,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the Biennale organisers requested the department to conduct overnight boat operations but the same was turned down by the latter fearing poor commuter patronage.
