Kochi Water Metro, an electric ferry service linked with the city's metro services, has predicted it will break even in finances later this year.
Despite its new routes and better backing over the years, this service has been operating at a loss for the past two financial years, and aims to break even by mid-2026, when its average daily ridership touches 8,000.
"2025 saw the average daily ridership rise to 7,000 from 6,000, and we further expect the same to touch 8,000, required to achieve breakeven, by the middle of this year," said Sajan P John, Chief Operating Officer, Kochi Water Metro Limited (KMWL), as per a Times of India report.
"With the commencement of High Court-Mattancherry service, the average daily revenue collection has now reached Rs 2.5 lakh," he added.
Notably, the KMWL began services on the High Court-Vypeen route on April 26, 2023, ending FY 2023-24 with a net loss of Rs 30.26 lakh. It managed to bring down this loss to Rs 19.22 lakh by FY 2024-25.
"While DPR study projected daily ridership of 34,000 passengers upon full operation of all 15 routes, we have already clocked half of the figure with only one-fourth of the project," another official pointed out in the report.
KMWL is also mulling higher fares for specialised tourist services on the upcoming High Court–Kadamakkudy route, in addition to possible routes to Alappuzha, Pathiramanal, and/or Kumarakom.
The KMWL is also trying to increase income from its non-fare revenue models (those which do not depend on passengers), John told Indian Express.
A number of ideas have been proposed for this, including branding opportunities inside boats, leasing out spaces at terminals, seasonal kiosks catering to a variety of interests, and community spots at select stations for people to sit and chat.
The idea is to boost viable non-fare revenue streams in order to complement the main source of income, ticket revenue.
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