The rejuvenated 60.5-km Akkulam-Kollam stretch of the State Waterway is to be thrown open for navigation and inland water transport by mid-January 2021 by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
After the commissioning being planned in two phases, Mr. Vijayan is scheduled to cruise through the historic waterway from Akkulam end in the 24-seater indigenously manufactured solar boat procured by the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) and currently undergoing trial runs in Kochi.
The solar boat is to be brought soon to the KTDC’s boat jetty in Veli tourist village for trial runs proposed on the Chakka-Kadinamkulam stretch of the waterway. Official sources said the solar boat could cruise with ease in a depth of one metre but the canal was being deepened for 1.5 metre to be on the safer side.
Trials by speed boat and finishing works are on by the Kerala Waterways and Infrastructure Ltd (KWIL), the special purpose vehicle created by the government for the rejuvenation of the inland waterways, and the Inland Navigation Department.
On Sunday, pontoon-mounted excavators worked behind the World Market on the Akkulam-Venpalavattom stretch for the bank-clearing work. Silt pusher and Berky have been deployed near Karali bridge to remove the water weeds again.
Already, the 722-metre Sivagiri tunnel and the 350-metre Chilakoor tunnel, the major challenges in the Akkulam-Kollam stretch, had been made navigable by the Inland Navigation Department. The Sivagiri tunnel, completed in 1880, is the only one of its kind in Asia.
Boats will be able to move along the Sivagiri and Chilakoor tunnels, as they have a diameter of 4.7 metres. Rehabilitation of 16 families between Varkala bridge and Chilakoor tunnel and clearance of the waterway near the Sivagiri tunnel was expedited.
After the local body election process is completed this week, steps for rehabilitation of the 16 families expected to cost ₹1.5 crore will be taken up.
The government has already given the approval for the rehabilitation of the 60 families residing in the fringes of T.S. Canal at Varkala through Punargeham project of the Fisheries Department.
Once the stretch is commissioned, inland water transport as fuel-efficient and eco-friendly mode of transportation is possible from Akkulam to Kottapuram stretch of the 633-km West Coast Canal (WCC)—the main arterial waterway traversing through 11 districts.
