Cochin Shipyard has delivered the first of a series of battery powered boats to Kochi Metro Rail Ltd here on Friday.

This is part of an order for 23 boats the shipyard will build under the Kochi Water Metro project. Five boats are under construction and will be handed over to KMRL in a couple of months. The boat can accomodate 100 passengers.

According to officials, the construction of water metro terminals is also progressing. Terminals at Vyttila and Kakkanad are almost ready and the dredging is complete. The installation of floating pontoon is also in final stage. The other terminals at Vypin, High Court, Eloor, Cheranalloor, Chittoor will be ready by April 2022.

Features

The water metro boat boasts many firsts. It is the first time in the world a centrally controlled integrated water transport system with a large fleet is powered by battery. Water metro boats use LTO batteries, which is the latest in battery technology and is the safest battery chemistry industrially available with a capability for fast charging. The battery can be charged in 10 to 15 minutes while the passengers are alighting or boarding. The super chargers are installed in floating pontoon jetties at select locations.

Water metro boats are aluminium catamaran hull construction, with high degree of safety and stability. Together with the use of floating jetties it is disabled and elderly-friendly. Super-efficient hulls, designed for a speed of 10 knots, are considerably faster than the vintage boats and consumes very less energy. The fully air-conditioned boats with wide windows offer comfortable travel with exotic view of the banks and backwaters.

The boats are designed to create very less waves over the narrow channels even at high speed and would traverse absolutely calm and silent. An automatic boat location system will continuously monitor the boat position from the operating control centre at Vytilla hub.

Kochi Water Metro is a climate-friendly integrated water transport initiative to improve connectivity of the people with 38 terminals and 78 boats over and covers 76 kilometres.