An inside view of Lake Palace

Kochi, May 20
Encouraged by the success in water-linked tourism activities, the state-owned Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation (KSINC) is all set to introduce another luxury cruise boat for service in the backwaters. The corporation will soon deploy Lake Palace, the newly refurbished passenger boat, as part of widening its tourism initiatives in the backwaters.
Daily service
Mr K.N. Satheesh, Managing Director, said that the Company proposes to operate the boat in the Kochi-Kumarakom sector on a daily basis initially. Later, it will be deployed in the Alappuzha-Kollam route so that tourists can enjoy the scenic beauty of the backwaters in the area. The fully air-conditioned boat has a capacity to carry 40 passengers with exquisite conference rooms and is ideal for conducting meetings, birthday parties and business gatherings, he said. It has an open upper deck with steel fencing. The company has spent over Rs 22 lakh in its renovation and the work was carried out at its own boatyard near Kochi, Mr Satheesh said.
Yielding results
He also said that KSINC's venture into backwater tourism operations has started yielding results as the first luxury cruise boat, Sagara Rani, had collected Rs 68 lakh last fiscal against Rs 39 lakh in the previous fiscal. Currently, six cruise boats of the corporation are sailing in the backwaters of Kochi. The safety requirement of the cruise boats under the IRS class is one of the reasons for the encouraging response from passengers, he added.
New barge
KSINC, he said, recently received in-principle approval from the Inland Waterways Authority of India to avail itself of the Central vessel subsidy scheme for construction of a 600-tonne barge for the transportation of dry cargo. The barge, to be constructed at KSINC yard at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore, will be ready in six months, he added. The corporation has also ventured into transportation of industrial raw materials such as rock phosphate and sulphur in self-propelled steel barges. The existing barges are insufficient to meet the demand, as the company carries an average of 30,000 tonnes of bulk raw materials per month for FACT. The Navigation Training Centre set up by KSINC to impart training to operate different kinds of vessels and crafts in the inland waters is getting good response, Mr Satheesh said.
The corporation is also planning to provide training to the crew in houseboats in navigation and hospitality, he added. 

Courtesy --- The Hindu