KOCHI: To shore up tourism, Kochi Metropolitan Transport Authority (KMTA) has decided to install global positioning system (GPS) in nine state water transport department (SWTD) ferry boats operating in Kochi.
Once installed, passengers can know the schedule of the boats, track movement and book tickets online. KMTA authorities had already held discussion regarding this with SWTD.
The move is part of the Kochi open mobility network programme launched in July this year.
GPS will be installed on boats operating on Ernakulam-Fort Kochi, Mattancherry, Vyttila-Kakkanad, Ernakulam-Mulavukad and Varapuzha sector.
KMTA will add all details regarding the journey of the boats in the existing ‘Yatri’ application, which is used for taxi booking in Kochi.
“On the application, one needs to open a journey planner by clicking on the folder ‘boats’. All the details, including schedule, time, movement and ticket fare will be available on it. We plan to extend the online boat ticket booking facility for all ferry boats in the state,” said a KMTA official.
Once the application starts operational, only the boat which is scheduled to start its journey at a particular time should operate. Otherwise, it will cause disruption in the system.
Currently, one can operate any boat at the scheduled time depending on the availability of the fuel in the boat, the official added.
The hindrance raised at the meeting was on the remittance of fare.
Currently, ticket fare collected is remitted at the treasury account. When the online ticket booking facility starts, a bank should function as a mediator to collect the money from the customer.
Later, the amount should be transferred to the treasury account from the bank. It has been decided to give a 24-hour interval before transferring the amount from bank to treasury to facilitate the return of the amount to the account of the customer if he or she cancels the ticket.
“This has to be discussed with the finance department before taking a final decision. KMTA has said they were ready to provide an online application facility to our ferry service across the state. Initially, it will be available in Kochi on a trial basis,” said an SWTD official.
Shaji V Nair, director of the water transport department, said the discussion on online facilities is in the initial stage.
“We will give a proposal regarding that to the state government, which should give a final decision,” he said.
The nine ferries of the department have been witnessing footfall of around 8,000 to 10,000 passengers on holidays in the post pandemic period. It is around 5,000 on normal days.
The third catamaran will join the fleet of ferry boats of the department next week.
