Ro-Ro: Kochi corporation to seek legal opinion on scrapping agreement with KSINC

Kochi: Kochi corporation council held on Thursday authorised officials with local body's engineering wing to seek legal opinion regarding scrapping agreement with KSINC for operating Ro-Ro services in Fort Kochi-Vypeen sector. Local body will hold an all-party meeting and discuss the report to be prepared by corporation secretary in this regard.This move comes in the wake of corporation planning to entrust a new agency with the operations of its Ro-Ro vessels. Auditors had found mismatches in accounts of operating the vessels submitted by KSINC. Mayor V K Minimol asked officials to look into legal implications if local body scraps the agreement with KSINC. Opposition leader V A Sreejith said entrusting private firms with operations of Ro-Ro would not be better.KSINC is continuously generating loss and local body has to shell out huge sums to make good the loss. It is learned that corporation authorities are exploring possibilities of entrusting Ro-Ro services in Fort Kochi-Vypeen sector with Water Metro or inviting open tenders to identify suitable contractors.Earlier, corporation finance standing committee, which examined an audit report on Ro-Ro services, found that services in the sector is causing a huge burden on civic body despite there being enough potential for generating profit if services are conducted in an efficient and transparent manner.Meanwhile, both the vessels plying in the sector will have to be dry docked immediately. Dry docking has been overdue from last year. Though corporation entrusted Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) with construction of the third Ro-Ro vessel on Nov 13, 2024, local body authorities are not sure about when it will be delivered. Corporation allotted Rs 18 crore for the purpose. As per agreement with CSL, work should be completed in 18 months.