This follows worsening traffic snarls on roads from
city to West Kochi due to closure of Kundannoor bridge by PWD for resurfacing.
The clamour to reintroduce Fort Queen, a 150-passenger
capacity ferry owned by the Kochi Corporation from Fort Kochi to either Vypeen
or Bolgatty has gathered momentum, in the wake of worsening traffic snarls on
roads leading from the city to West Kochi owing to the month-long closure of
the two-km-long Kundannoor bridge by the Public Works department for
resurfacing.
Making matters worse, one of
the two roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) ferries that operated on the Vypeen-Fort Kochi
route has been withdrawn from service following technical snag.
The Vypeen-Fort Kochi
Passengers’ Association that has been in the forefront of the agitation
demanding the introduction of a third ro-ro ferry in the corridor, demanded
that Fort Queen that had been idling for the past several
months be deployed on the stretch to lessen the woes of commuters in the
corridor.
“The withdrawal of one of the
two ro-ro ferries, that too when the Kundannoor bridge was closed down for
repair, has come as a bolt from the blue for commuters in the ever-busy
corridor. In this situation, the Corporation must deploy Fort Queen in
the corridor. It can call at the jetty in Vypeen which was once used by KSINC
ferries, considering the inadequate berthing space near the ro-ro jetty,” said
Francis Chammany, president of the association.
Citing the Corporation’s
inability to operate Fort Queen owing to the need to carry out
extensive repair works on the vessel, sources in the agency said it was
withdrawn from service since there was little demand for it when it had been
deployed a few times to lessen congestion in the Vypeen-Fort Kochi corridor,
until a year ago. In this situation,
commuters could make optimal use of ferries operated by the State Water
Transport department and the Kochi Water Metro in the Ernakulam-Fort Kochi
corridor.
The Maradu municipality has,
in the meantime, invited applications from boat operators to ply ferries in the
Netoor-Thevara corridor, to cater for commuters who have been affected by
closure of Kundannoor bridge.