2023-04-28 06:43:15
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — Who said that the metro is supposed to be underground?
In the city of Kochi, in southern India, this metro travels on water.. Thanks to a new fleet of colorful ferries, it’s now easier to navigate the waterways.
The “water metro” will connect Kochi, located in the state of Kerala, to ten nearby islands in the Arabian Sea. Passengers can book their tickets online and use a QR code.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended a ceremony on April 25 to announce the new watercraft.
He said, “We seek to provide solutions that are made in India, commensurate with local conditions. Whether it is semi-high-speed trains, regional rapid transit systems, or ferries… such systems are prepared wherever needed.”
Modi added that increasing the ability to travel by the new ferries may improve the reality of “stagnant tourism”.
Areas that can be accessed primarily by small watercraft are known as backwaters. In Kerala, some of them can only be accessed by hiring a small boat with an experienced local guide. As a result, these rural communities do not witness a large number of tourists.
“Kerala has a lot to offer the country and the world,” the chief minister added. He continued, “I am sure that this experience in Kerala will become a model for other states in the country to follow as well.”
Improving roads, railways and metro systems was a major initiative for the prime minister ahead of the G20 summit, which India will host in September.
As it has become the most populous country in the world, India has made no secret of its tourism ambitions.
India’s tourism minister, Arvind Singh, said his administration plans to create 50 new tourism destinations and 59 flight routes in order to facilitate access for visitors to more (remote) parts of the country.
Kochi’s water metro system is the latest in a series of major travel and infrastructure announcements in India.
The longest river cruise in the world left Varanasi in January, and its course spanned 51 days, including several Indian states and neighboring Bangladesh.
Then, the Kolkata metro system, the oldest in the country, unveiled the first ever underwater line, and those traveling through it pass under the Hooghly River. It will open to the public later this year.
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