The “Floating Metro”: Kochi Water Metro Project

Kochi Water Metro is an integrated water transport project in Greater Kochi region proposed by Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) under Unified Metro Transport Authority( UMTA, Kochi) to achieve synergy between the land and water modes. This project plans to connect islands situated closer to the mainland by way of sophisticated boats. Kochi will be among the few cities in Asia and the first city in the country to have water connectivity as a feeder service to the metro. 

                                   Source : KMRL

The water metro is expected to extended the “metro facility” to another 76 kms by connecting 10 islands around Kochi by way of modern sophisticated passenger boats. About 16 routes are identified and it is estimated that 38 jetties and 78 boats would be required to make the project operational.

                            Source : KMRL

Total cost estimated for the project is INR 819 crores. The German funding agency, Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW) is supporting KMRL with a loan of EUR 85-million  (around INR 597 crore) and the French funding agency, Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD), offers the technical support for the reforms.  The project is expected to be operational from April 2018. 

                                          Source : KMRL

Impact on islands

As the bridge road connections between the Kochi city and islands becoming increasingly congested and in a constant state of poor repair, the demand for a revival of the much cheaper water mode has been rapidly increasing. The efficiency, reliability and mobility offered by the proposed water metro system will have a direct impact on island communities.   

Along with the connecting jetties the rural roads also will be developed. Feeder services such as mini buses and auto rickshaws would ensure connectivity to all nook and corners of the islands. This will dramatically improve the overall transport facilities and also would significantly enhance the islanders access to the urban facilities in the mainland.

Source : www.google.com

These infrastructure development plans surely would serve as a catalyst for the overall economic growth of the islands around Kochi. The proposed commercial complexes in the jetties would enhance the job and self-employment opportunities of the islanders.   Once the project gets successfully implemented the now sleepy islands would turn in to bustling haven of commerce and ecotourism.

Regulatory role of Port State Control

Maritime regulations are required to ensure that shipping companies operate within the same standards of safety and environmental responsibility as applicable to companies operating on land.

Who are the regulators?

The maritime regulators who are responsible to formulate and implement the regulations are UN - IMO to regulate on matters related to ship safety, pollution prevention and security and ILO is responsible for laws governing the people on board the ship, the classification societies (the technical advisors) and the maritime states.  

Maritime states have two regulatory roles to play - one as Flag State who has governing power on its own flag ships and the second one as Coastal State, who has powers to enforce international law related to safe navigation and prevention of pollution on ships in its territorial waters.

Port State Control

More and more of ships were getting registered under the flag of convenience due to the commercially favourable terms of registration. Some of the flag states were not enforcing international maritime regulations on its own flag ships and this gave way to the Port State control movement.

UNCLOS 1982 allows coastal states to legislate for the “good conduct” of ships in their territorial seas. Using these rights to enforce international regulations in its territorial waters, the coastal states initiated the port state control movement.

This movement started in Europe in 1978 to ensure that foreign merchant ships calling at their ports comply with the relevant maritime conventions which was got formalized in 1982 by signing Paris MoU.  Ships may be subject to port state control inspection while at port or proceeding to a port to identify deficiencies in ships, its equipment or its crew.

Port State Control Inspection

The port state control maritime government uses its maritime agency (eg: Mercantile Marine Department) to undertake the inspection on ships which are in their territorial waters. The maritime agency employs professionally qualified maritime personnel such as marine surveyors/ superintendents etc to carry out the required inspections.

The port state control inspection normally has three parts: General external inspection of the ship, a check of certificates and ‘Walk around’ to inspect the condition of exposed decks, cargo handling gear, navigation and radio equipment, life-saving appliances, fire - fighting arrangements, machinery spaces, pollution prevention equipment, living and working conditions.

A detention order will be made in case of serious deficiencies. 

How to identify the stowage position of a container on board a ship?

Each container on board a container ship has a stowage position. Bay plan (stowage plan) is a diagram used for stowage planning (ship loading). It shows the cross section of a ship, with the stowage positions of each container.

A unique six digit number is allocated for every such positions, eg:- 020584. This number indicates on which Bay , on which Row at what height (tier) the container is positioned, 02 (Bay)/05(Row)/84(tier) on board the ship.

The Bay

A bay on a ship can be compared to a slice on a loaf of bread. Each bay is given a 2 digit number, 0dd numbers (01,03,05..) for 20’ bays and even (02,04,06..) numbers for 40’ bays. The number increases form bow to stern. The first 2 digits on the stowage position indicates the bay and it identifies the position of the container (Lengthwise), fore , mid and aft, on the ship.

The Row

The 3^rd and 4^th digits on the stowage position indicate the row in which the container is stowed. It identifies the position of the container left to right (width wise) on the ship. Starting from centreline of the ship , rows to the right (starboard) have odd numbers and rows to the left (port) have even numbers. For the ships which have even number of rows in total (15,17,19..), the centre row is numbered “00”.

The Tier (height)

The bay and row position indicates whether the container is towards bow or stern and whether it is positioned towards left (portside) or right (starboard side) on the ship.  The tier indicates at what height the container is stowed. Containers stacked at the bottom of ships are numbered 02, which grows upwards 04,06,08.., in the under deck stack. Whereas numbering on deck starts from 82 for containers stacked on the hatch cover and the numbers grow upwards , 84,86,88…for on deck stacking.

So , stowage position 020584 indicates that the container is on a 40’ bay near the bow , 3^rd row towards right (starboard) , second tier on deck.