Faced with increasing demand to fast-track the proposal to build an underwater tunnel linking Vypeen with Fort Kochi across the sea mouth to ensure seamless commute through the State’s 623-km coastal highway, the State government has planned a stakeholder meeting in November.
The government is hard-pressed to raise about ₹2,500 crore to fund the approximately 3-km-long underwater tunnel. The meeting in November would shed light on this. In its present form, the project might in all probability have to be readied with private participation, following which motorists using it might have to pay toll, highly-placed sources said.
The project was mooted as early as 2015 by Jose Paul, Adjunct Professor at the India Maritime University in Chennai and a doctorate holder in Port Management from the University of Wales, UK. “I suggested it shortly after the Fort Kochi ferry accident that claimed the lives of 11 passengers who were travelling from Vypeen to Fort Kochi (in a ramshackle ferry). I also met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in 2023 and apprised him of how it can be built 35 m beneath the seabed.”
Motorists wanting to cross the 600 m long stretch across the sea mouth are using the RoRo ferry service, for which they have to wait for a long duration and subsequently pay the fare. Even if toll is collected from motorists using the underwater tunnel that has been mulled, they would considerably save on time and effort, since they would be able to cross over to the other side in five minutes, Mr. Jose, who served as Chairman of Mormugao Port Trust and as Acting Chairman of Jawaharlal Nehru Port, Mumbai, added.
NGOs like the Vypeen Janakeeya Kootayma and others have, during the past decade, been citing how such an underwater link in the passenger-dense Fort Kochi-Vypeen corridor would catalyse business and tourism activities in the Munambam-Chellanam coastal belt. This is all the more crucial in the wake of the impending completion of the Munambam-Azheekode bridge on the Coastal Highway, linking Ernakulam and Thrissur districts.
While welcoming the move to build the underwater tunnel, V.T. Sebastian, general convener of the Chellanam-Kochi Janakeeya Vedhi, an NGO that has been spearheading the cause of coastal residents, said that caution must be exercised to limit the project cost, failing which commuters would have to pay prohibitive rates as toll. “For 13 years, West Kochiites bore the brunt of paying prohibitive tolls for using the Thopumpady BOT Bridge. Care must also be taken to zero in on a feasible alignment that can be executed with the least disruption to people. In addition, sand being dredged from the sea must be deposited on the coastal regions that are prone to sea incursion.”
Published – October 26, 2025 09:56 pm IST
