Ferry, jankhars to ply from today

Kochi: The ferry and jankhar services will be resumed on the Fort Kochi-Vypeen route on Sunday, 17 days after the boat tragedy.  

“The services will start from 8 am on Sunday. All commuters will have a free ride on the first day,” said Mayor Tony Chammany.  

The barge ‘Pappy’ got the seaworthiness certificate from both the Ports department and the Cochin Port Trust on Saturday.

“All safety equipment have been fitted and the barge has been  found to be suitable for the service cutting across the 14-metre deep ship channel. It has a passenger capacity of 100 people. Enough lifebuoys and life jackets have been stored, in the ratio of 1:1. The trial runs were also found to be satisfactory,” said a Cochin Port Trust official.  

Only one of the two jankhars will conduct the service as the second one is still undergoing maintenance works. “During the inspection, one was found lacking mandatory thickness at the bottom,” said Ajayan P K, Chief Surveyor of Ports Department.  

Meanwhile, commuters demanded that the Kochi Corporation should operate the services directly rather than leasing them to contractors.

“The corporation promised to deploy a new boat in two months. The two modern Ro-Ro vessels will also be rolled out next year. The corporation should directly run the services, taking a lesson from the mishap. The contractor had deployed old boats and the jankhars too are nearly 15 years old,” said Francis Chammany, President Vypeen Boat Passengers Association.