The Hindu 06.12.2017
Corporation’s passenger boat conducts trial run
Fort Queen, the passenger boat that the Kochi Corporation is planning
to introduce in the Vypeen-Fort Kochi sector, conducting a trial run on
Tuesday.
KSINC has been contracted to operate the service
Fort Queen, the passenger boat of the Kochi Corporation, began trial runs in the Kochi waters on Tuesday.
Officials
of the Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINC), which
has been contracted for managing the service, successfully operated the
boat for close to four hours.
The boat will cover the
300-metre-long Vypeen-Fort Kochi sector in less than five minutes.
However, one lap would require around 20 minutes to complete as time has
to be allotted for completing the passenger movement in and out of the
vessel. The vessel has a seating capacity of 100 passengers, said Cyril
V. Abraham, the commercial manager of KSINC.
The boat is expected to operate 54 trips a day.
The civic authorities are planning the formal launch of the boat service on Thursday.
The
Congress-led civic administration had come under fire for the delay in
launching the service. The service has been planned as an alternative
facility for the jankar service which will be suspended for the
construction of the mooring facility for the Roll On-Roll Off service of
the Kochi Corporation.