KOCHI: Five years after Aditya, India’s first solar ferry, sailed to history to become the first Indian solar ferry when it started its operations in Kerala, the state government has given the go-ahead for a solar electric RoRo to be operated in Kochi.
NavaAlt Solar and Electric boats, who designed and built Aditya, have received a sanction of Rs 10 crore to build the barge ferry service which will be operational by mid-next year. “There is a huge potential for water transport in Kerala where only 100 ferry boats are operating under the state water transport. We have waterways which are two to three km wide where a bridge would be needed every five to ten km.
The cost of building a bridge would work to huge costs, touching Rs 1,000 crore in some places. Instead, operating ferries and Ro-Ros would be ideal and cost-effective using solar electric or hybrid technology,” said Sandith Thandasherry, founder and CEO, Navalt Solar.
Finance minister K Balagopal in his budget speech had quoted Aditya’s performance and announced that 50% of the ferry boats will be converted to solar-powered transport. Aditya has saved over 400 tonnes of carbon emissions and 1.5 lakh litres of diesel, he had said.
Sandith said that there was a huge potential in the fishing boat sector too as fishermen are struggling to meet the fuel costs. “We are building about six boats of 2.5-3 feet meant for single-day fishing. The aim is to make indigenous motors which are expected to be ready by the end of this month. As for the larger boats, hybrid technologies are already there in the world,” he said.
With its operations in the last five years, Aditya has seen the erratic behaviour of the monsoon season in Kerala and the batteries have been modified for whole day operations. He said that the batteries have been tweaked according to the function, be it 100 percent usage in a day for a ferry boat or a storage battery for leisure travel.
However, all ferries have backup storage batteries and even gensets on board for emergencies. This could be common for almost all coastal states where the weather is choppy. Boats operating in Vypin, Kochi or Mumbai could be largely similar in structure, but for some minor changes because of the similar sea conditions.
However, in case of ferries operating in Ganga or Brahmaputra where the current is high, motor power required is higher. “More power will be needed when going upstream while it could come down much down-stream,” he said.
Source: PTI
