Kochi Water Metro plans to shift operations control

The Kochi Water Metro is planning to shift its Operation Control Centre (OCC), the nerve centre that provides the overall control and coordination of the entire ferry transport system, from Vyttila Mobility Hub to High Court terminal.

While the move is to facilitate the establishment of the OCC at the heart of the Water Metro operations, it’s also aimed at generating non-fare box revenue by way of leasing out 29,000 sqft of commercial space at the Vyttila hub.

Currently, only the Vyttila-Kakkanad services operate from near the OCC. The other routes — High Court to Fort Kochi, High Court to Vypeen, High Court to South Chittoor, South Chittoor to Cheranalloor, are all in the High Court region.

Currently, the OCC is functioning out of the KWML building at the Vyttila Hub. The two-storey building has 15, 000 sq ft space available on each floor. Once the OCC is shifted, a total of 29, 000 sq ft commercial area can be rented out. The move comes even as the demand for the building space at the Vyttila Metro Station has gone up. Recently the Kerala State Beverages Corporation Ltd (Bevco) had approached KMRL to lease out space for setting up a premium liquor outlet.

According to sources, there is an increased demand for commercial space in the Kochi Metro station building at Vyttila Hub. The authorities expect the same to happen at the facility of the Water Metro there. The good connectivity at the Vyttila Hub, which is the convergence of various transportation modes, further props up the commercial potential.

Besides the facility at Vyttila Hub, the Water Metro plans to generate a substantial non-fare box revenue by renting out commercial spaces at its huge spacious terminals at High Court Junction and Vypeen, and also the upcoming ones at Mattancherry and Thevara.

A total of 36 terminals are envisaged in the first phase of the project, with 15 identified routes, connecting 10 islands along a network that spans 78 km. The Kochi Water Metro is inching closer to Operational Breakeven, which the authorities expect to achieve upon starting the new service on the High Court -Mattancherry route next month.

The average daily ridership has crossed the 6000-mark in October last. To achieve the breakeven, the daily collection should touch Rs 2.5 lakh, which translates to an average daily ridership in excess of 7,000.

The OCC is a central control facility consisting of an LED-based large video display for controlling and co-ordinating the services. It has all the necessary computing and communications hardware and software needed to fulfil this function.