KOCHI: A sudden decrease in the number of boat services from the Ernakulam Jetty to Fort Kochi is causing distress to the boat passengers in the area. The regular passengers complain that the number of boats serving the area has fallen from four to two. “The time gap between two services is around 30 minutes. Therefore, if you miss a boat, you will have to wait for 30 min to catch the next one or rely on buses, which can take about an hour to touch the city. Also, the bus ticket fare is very high at ` 12 as compared to the boat at `2.50,” said Babu, one of the regular passengers. Even the authorities seem to be unsure about the number of services. The ferry service authorities said , “Daily there are five boat services in this area. However, today, one of the boats has been sent for repairing and another one has been sent for Vaikathashtami in Kottayam. Actually, this service is provided by the government and it is running into loss.” The Ernakulam boat jetty station master said, “In the last few days, there have been three boat services to Fort Kochi. Earlier, there were 12 services to Fort Kochi, Mattanchery and Vypin. We know there is a need for more services, but the government has some limitations.”One of the passengers Shameer said, “The passengers are ready to give more fare for increased services but the government is not even ready to do that.”Recently, whenever some boat is damaged, its service is cancelled and no alternate measures are taken. Also, the parking space at the Fort Kochi boat jetty is very narrow. Once, the vehicles are parked on both sides of the path, there would be around 0.5 metre wide path left to walk.
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