Kochi: The coastal shipping service launched by the Kerala Maritime Board to avoid the movement of containers through roads, has turned out to be a huge success.
During the last four months, 1,712 containers were taken from Kochi to Beypore, Azhikal and Kollam in 23 trips of coastal ships. The Maritime Board is now gearing up to introduce one more ship.
Container transportation through ships has also helped in easing the traffic congestion on highways and city roads. The Maritime Board has introduced two services each towards north and south. Each ship has a capacity to accommodate 100-150 containers.
With each container being transported through the ship, you avoid a lorry on the road. In this manner, 1,712 lorries were avoided on the roads during this period.
With one more ship being introduced, the Maritime Board would be able to operate two services each in the two directions. One of the attractions for exporters and importers is that transportation by ship costs just half the expense involved in sending the containers through lorries. Besides, there is also a government subsidy.
The government would grant the shipping company a subsidy which is half the cost involved in sending the containers through roads.
A portion of this amount would be transferred to those engaged in import and export activities.
J M Bakshi, a company that is in the container shipping business, is introducing the Ro-Ro system on the Mangalore-Beypore- Azheekal-Kochi route. Vehicles and commuters can travel by the Ro-Ro service.
Maritime Board chairman V J Mathew said the board has decided to seek expression of interest from companies for starting streamer services exclusively for commuters.
The Kochi-Kollam-Vizhinjam-Kanyakumari route is under consdideratoin. The companies which sign agreements to operate the services should bring their own ships.
