By Ashraf Padanna/Kochi

The Kochi metro will start its commercial operations in June next year and it will be manned by women-dominated crew and supporting staff, making it “smarter and gender inclusive.”
“It’ll be the country’s first women-driven train. They will also run services like ticketing, customer relations, cafeterias and taxis,” said Elias George, managing director of Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL).
The state-run company plans to entrust women staff with most of the jobs to provide the female commuters safe mobility and travel experience.
Cafeteria run by women and taxi services with women drivers will be hallmarks of each station. There will be surveillance cameras everywhere in the stations to ensure their safety.
“An integrated, gender-sensitive metro and feeder system does not require extra effort. It is just a matter of extra perspective,” George said while making a presentation at the Global NRK (Non-Resident Keralites) Meet that concluded here on Saturday.
The state-run firm plans a GPS-oriented mobility app for women to help locate their position in coaches and stations with an alert system to be used in an emergency. Bright lighting will increase visibility throughout the system.
It also provides online shopping facility for commuters to place their orders for groceries, provisions and vegetables onboard and collect the items at the stations, making them a “locale for all transactions which other metros do not have.”
“Our metro will look like a no-frills Dubai metro. This will also set a record of the fastest -built metro in India, to go operational in just three years,” George said.
A Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA) will also be set up by the time the first stretch of 18km is launched. The commuters can get down from the train and catch a “hi-tech bus or boat” to their destinations using the same ticket.
The ticketing and automatic fare collection system will transform the electronic payment industry while encouraging more number of citizens to use public transportation facilities.
Commuters need not stand in a queue and purchase their tickets which are booked and delivered electronically.
A Rs5bn project for water transport on the lines of Hong Kong is being finalised along with smart bus services connecting metro stations, which would double as pick-up points for articles purchased online.
A meeting of the KMRL is scheduled to be held in New Delhi tomorrow to consider the proposal for advanced water transport system with the help of external funding agencies.
French engineering major Alstom is expected to supply the rolling stocks by December. The metro rail connectivity will be extended to SmartCity, Thripunithura, Vypeen and the international airport in the next phases.
“We are not just attempting to set up a metro system, but make Kochi a city with seamless transport system,” George said.
Two “smart cities” are also being planned to make it economically viable unlike other metros in the country.
“We want the NRKs to make investments in these township projects. While we are looking at an investment of Rs2.3bn for the 215 acre Muttom project, the investment is pegged at  Rs200mn for the 18-acre Kakkanad project,” he said.
Both these projects will soon be opened up for investment from NRKs. The construction of 15 to 20 roads “to be developed to show the state what good roads look like” is another project of the 50:50 joint venture between the state and federal governments.