India launches its first water metro in Kochi today;

India's first water metro, which would use battery-operated hybrid boats powered by batteries to connect 10 islands near Kochi, Kerala, was inaugurated under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The managing director of Kochi Metro Rail Ltd said "Kochi's water metro project is a unique project which will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister. This is a game-changing transport system because Kochi is surrounded by many islands and out of them 10 islands are very important and thickly populated,"

• There will be connections between ten islands surrounding the port city, and the first phase of service will run from the High Court-Vypin terminal to the Vyttila-Kakkanad terminal.

• In addition to using the "Kochi 1" card to ride in the Kochi water metro, tickets can be purchased online.

• Price of the ticket: 20 minimum and 40 maximum. Regular users can purchase weekly or monthly passes for between 180 and 1500.

• According to CM Vijayan, using the water metro will let travellers avoid traffic and travel 20 minutes from the High Court terminal to Vypin terminal and 25 minutes from Vypin terminal to the Kakkanad terminal.

• The project, which has 15 roads connecting islands covering 78 kilometres is worth 747 crores.