The Kochi Water Metro, which was formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, began its commercial operation on Wednesday. The boats started operating from the High Court Water Metro Terminal and Vyppin Water Metro Terminal at 7 a.m. The ticket rate for this route is Rs. 20. During peak hours, there will be a boat service every 15 minutes on the High Court-Vypin route. The boat services will continue until 8 p.m. Loknath Behera, MD of Kochi Water Metro Limited (KWML), took the first boat service with Vypin islanders from the Vypin water metro terminal.
The Director of Finance, Kochi Metro Rail Limited, Annapoorani S., said that initially 76 kilometres will be covered by the Kochi Water Metro. The country’s first Water Metro service will provide safe, affordable, and pocket-friendly travel for people in and around Kochi, as well as tourists from across the world.
Initially, the Water Metro will start sailing with eight electric-hybrid boats on two routes: the Highcourt-Vypin and Vyttila-Kakkanad stretches. The single-journey ticket fare for the High Court-VVypin route will be Rs 20. The fare for the Vyttila-Kakkanad route will be Rs 30.
Other than the single-journey tickets, Kochi Water Metro will also have weekly, monthly, and quarterly passes. As an inaugural offer, commuters can enjoy discounts on their purchase of various trip passes.
A weekly trip pass with 12 trips is priced at Rs 180, while a monthly trip pass valid for 30 days with 50 trips would cost Rs 600. The quarterly pass is priced at Rs 1500, and passengers would be able to avail themselves of 150 trips within a period of 90 days. People would also be able to use the Kochi One Card for travelling in the Kochi Water Metro. Mobile QR tickets could be booked through Kochi One’s app.
