A total of 1,855 commuters travelled in six Metro Connect buses, the Kochi metro’s air-conditioned electric feeder buses on Thursday (January 16), the first day of their commercial operation, in the Aluva-international airport and Kalamassery-Government Medical College and Kalamassery-Cusat corridors.
A total of 1,345 people travelled in four buses that were deployed on the airport route, while 510 people travelled in two buses that were deployed on the two routes from Kalamassery, raking in a total collection of ₹1.18 lakh, according to an official release.
Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) at the end of 2024 purchased a fleet of fifteen 32-seat e-buses, for around ₹15 crore, to link metro stations and Water Metro terminals with the airport, and with routes which have little or nil public transport to establish first- and last-mile public transport connectivity. The buses have the facility to recharge cell phones beside each seat.
KMRL has fixed ₹20 as the fare for travel up to 5 km in the regular air-conditioned feeder buses, while it is ₹80 to travel in the lengthier Aluva-international airport corridor in similar buses that have relatively bigger seats. The fare can be paid digitally and by cash. They would operate every 20 minutes to the airport and back to Aluva during peak hours and every 30 minutes during off-peak hours, from 6.45 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Other routes
The other routes where the feeder buses would be introduced in a phased manner are the High Court-MG Road circular route (every 10 minutes from 8.30 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.), Kadavanthra-KP Vallon Road-Panampilly Nagar circular route (every 25 minutes from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.) and the Kakkanad Water Metro terminal-Infopark/KINFRA Park/ Collectorate routes (every 25 minutes from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m).
Published – January 19, 2025 02:00 am IST
