Kochi: German government bank KfW (Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau), which provides financial assistance for the Integrated Water Transport project of the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL), will fund 80 per cent of the '560 crore project of the Kerala Urban Road Transport Corporation (KURTC) to run clean fuel metro feeder and city buses in Kochi. This was finalised after a three-member German delegation assessed the project’s viability and visited the KURTC hub and the proposed inland waterway routes here over the last two days.
“KURTC has agreed to run metro feeder buses besides city services using clean fuel. The total estimated project cost is Rs 560 crore and KfW will fund 80 percent of this. Rs 486 crore will be used for procurement of 783 buses, including 100 electric feeder buses and the rest that run on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas). A total of 150 buses will be air-conditioned,” said Julia Scholtes, Principal Project Manager, KfW.
“The German government is really impressed by the Smart City concept and one core area is integration of various modes of transport. We are also engaged in providing assistance to Bhubhaneswar and Coimbatore which too were included under the Smart City project,” the official said. N Bhadranandan, KURTC Special Officer, said the Corporation aimed to roll out the first of the feeder buses when the Kochi Metro operations begin by March next. “An international bid will be invited as soon as we get it sanctioned by the union and state governments,” he said.
Three types of buses – 40-seater, 24-seater and 16-seater, will be rolled out. Already 44 routes have been identified for running battery-operated feeder buses to provide last mile connectivity to metro commuters while nearly 300 routes are planned for city services using CNG buses. CNG fuel stations will be set up at the Aluva workshop and at the Thevara hub.
