Mattancherry boat service to resume after six years

To allow passengers from mainland to make the trip in 20 minutes

- KRISHNA KUMAR K E @Kochi

AFTER a wait of nearly six years, the State Water Transport Department (SWTD) is finally set to resume boat services to Mattancherry. A New Year gift perhaps, which will enable local residents and scores of tourists to reach the popular tourist destination in 20 minutes from mainland Kochi, instead of the over-an-hour-long travel by road.

An experimental exercise—the deployment of a silt pusher machine—to clear the backwater navigation channel of accumulated silt has paved the way for the resumption of services.

The machine was recently acquired by the Cochin Smart Mission Ltd (CSML) for the Kochi corporation. SWTD was forced to approach CSML to find a way out after the irrigation department failed to carry out dredging despite being allocated crores for the purpose.