Islanders in Vembanad lagoon, now a popular Keralan tourist destination, hope new public transport will bring easy access to jobs and services on mainland

The city of Kochi in the southern Indian state of Kerala is to become the first in the country to get its own water metro system, in a move that authorities say could transform the lives of thousands of fishermen and farmers living on islands in the local lagoon.

The islands in the Vembanad lagoon, inevitably known as the “Venice of the east” because of the large network of canals which connect them, are home to some of Kerala’s poorest people, many of whom have little access to the urban mainland and earn less than £1 a day.

They hope the new form of public transportation, scheduled to be fully functional by 2020, will bring them easy access to jobs, education and services on the mainland.

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In the past two decades, the backwaters of Kochi have become a popular tourist destination, bringing people from around the world to take the famous houseboat tours or watch the annual snake-boat races in the area. The unregulated tourist trade in the region has also brought pollution and traffic to the waterways, affecting local fishermen’s livelihoods.

The lack of jobs and opportunities on the islands has driven migration to mainland Kochi. For those who choose to stay on the islands, few jobs apart from fishing and rice farming in paddy fields are available.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Traditional home on the edge of Vembanad in the Keralan backwaters. Photograph: Alamy

More than 100,000 islanders are expected to use the new metro, complete with modern watercrafts, which will connect 17 of the 20 islands in Kochi. A single journey will cost four rupees and travellers will use prepaid cards onboard. The same smart card will also allow people to buy basic food supplies such as sugar or rice.

A spokesperson from Kochi Metro Rail Limited said: “An average person living on the islands is making around 5,000 rupees (£50) a month and if they work in the city, they usually have clerical jobs, or work as salesmen or do that kind of thing. So there is a real demand for cheap, reliable, public transport.”

“If I was living on an island, I’d be able to check the time of my boat on my mobile phone, and use an app to plan my journey. It’s almost a door-to-door service. At present, many people don’t have access to boats at all.”

At present, about 2,400 islanders use an old state-run boat service, but unreliable timings and slow speeds have led to demand for a revamped public transport system.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cockle pickers with their boats in Vembanad. Photograph: Alamy

“The old boats only go at about three knots, which is like the speed of fast walking. They are delayed by hours, and they never follow the timetables, so it’s kind of a chicken and egg situation – nobody wants to use them because the service is not good, and because nobody is using them the government has been withdrawing boats from the fleet,” said the spokesperson.

The water metro project includes a fleet of electric minibuses to help islanders get to and from the 38 new jetties.

The 7.47bn rupee-project (£85m) will be supported by loans from the KfW, the German government’s development bank.

An ambitious revamp of the city’s bus and rail links is also under way, designed to reduce dependence on private vehicles, which cause huge traffic jams and parking problems.