Sundarbans gets its first electric ferry — but is it a viable solution?

In the Sundarbans’ Pather Pratima block, Sanjay Mondal starts his morning towing his boat on Krittibas Jana Ghat (port). As he revs up the motor, early morning passengers start to clamour in. It is a short 3-minute ride to the other side — marked by the chatter of school kids and work commuters. But unlike the hundreds of diesel-run noisy motorboats that make their way across the Sundarbans every day, Mondal’s boat is a first of its kind — it is powered by an electric propulsion system and is run on lithium rechargeable batteries. 

Electric vessels are being seen as good alternatives to conventional diesel-fuelled boats, which emit high levels of greenhouse gases (GHG), discharge oil and bilge water and have high operational and maintenance costs. 

But can they be viable solutions in a climate-ravaged region with a weak electric infrastructure? A pilot project led by the wildlife conservation non-profit WWF-India has introduced the first electric ferries in the Indian Sundarbans, and the data being tracked by the project aims to determine just that.

The Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve in eastern India is a cluster of 102 islands connected to the mainland by a complex network of waterways across a 600 kilometres coastline. The region is mostly remote with little land connectivity and is home to over 4.6 million people in 54 inhabited islands. Parts of the Sundarbans also attract hordes of tourists as it has a thriving population of several globally endangered species and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Diesel-powered motor boats ferry several thousand commuters every day and are the main transport for last-mile connectivity. There are also roughly 200 tourist boats that operate here. The vessels are run by scores of boat operators, ranging from single boat owners to those with large fleets of varying sizes; they are non-standard containers that employ repurposed, fuel-inefficient diesel engines. 

According to a recent study on air and water pollution by Kolkata-based Bose Institute and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, the low-grade fuels used in the local boats have been causing massive emissions of trace metals into the Sundarbans’ atmosphere and threatening its fragile ecosystem. The study posits that in the long run, aerosols and water pollution may affect the health of mangrove plantations.

Mangroves are natural barriers against cyclones and rising sea levels in this region, which is also a climate change hotspot — a term designated to an area that is likely to face severe impacts of climatic change. 

Electric ferries have been introduced by WWF-India in collaboration with the corporation HSBC in a move to bring climate solutions to this region. Started in September 2023, this project aims to limit 0.4 tonnes of carbon emissions through electric boats and bring down the costs of maintenance and fuel for the boat owners.

There are many factors that must be considered to facilitate a sustainable move towards e-mobility. Martin Shefler, co-founder of Auroville Consulting that provides consulting and advisory services for ecological and socially responsible development, said the sustainability of such solutions is contingent on whether “the infrastructure supporting these transport solutions is designed and developed with climate resilience in mind.”

Sundarbans has been deemed the cyclone capital of India by the India Meteorological Department and faces frequent and high-intensity cyclones and floods. Power supply gets cut off in disaster emergencies. 

A 2020 study conducted by WWF-India on the feasibility of electric vehicles (e-rickshaws and electric ferries) in the Indian Sundarbans found that, while the electric infrastructure has greatly improved over time, round-the-clock power availability remains a challenge.  The region experiences losses in power supply and has poor connectivity in powerlines owing to  its complicated geography and remoteness. 

While the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL), which owns the distribution grid infrastructure in the Sundarbans, has made strides under various government schemes to strengthen the network and address power quality issues, the impact of climate change continues to vex.

To counter these challenges, WWF-India’s pilot boat is a makeshift electric boat where the electric battery has been retrofitted onto Mondal’s old diesel boat. The diesel engine has not been removed and has been kept for emergencies. 

“After Cyclone Remal in May, we did not have electricity for a few days and I was unable to charge my battery. I had to use my diesel motor again; otherwise, I would have lost three days of wages,” Mondal recalls.

Shefler thinks that “distributed energy sources, such as solar power and battery energy storage systems that are locally deployed and capable of operating both with and without the grid support, can offer the necessary reliability.”

WWF-India has also set up a charging station at Kshetra Mohanpur, nearby. “The charging station is primarily meant for electric transport on the island, electric three wheelers and electric ferry boats. The island is grid-connected, but during inclement weather, the grid is not powered as a precautionary measure. During these times, the charging station will be the reliable source of power for not only transport but also for other uses,” said Anamitra Anurag Danda, director for Sundarbans programme, WWF India.

Loans for commercial e-vehicles also tend to be more expensive. Therefore, Chaitanya Kanuri, associate director for e-mobility at the World Research Institute, highlighted the critical need for access to affordable financing. “While electric vehicles may have cheaper running costs, buying and financing them is much more expensive; this tends to be an additional burden that may lead people to opt out of EVs,” she said. 

Mondal said he saves about Rs 500 per day since he switched from diesel. He only needs to charge his battery once out of 50 trips across the river each day — and the savings add up.

At the moment, the maintenance and operational costs are being taken care of by the project. Mondal’s boat has also been partially funded by the project. But the availability of EV subsidies and loans for EVs will be a deciding factor for switching to electric ferries for boat folk in the long run.  

“The EV servicing eco-system in India, which is limited to vehicle dealerships today, needs to be more ubiquitous and widespread — it is largely dominated by dealerships and original equipment manufacturers. Delays in servicing EVs can be deterrents to their adoption,” especially in non-urban remote regions such as this, Kanuri pointed out.

The objective to switch to electric vessels to cut down GHG emissions implicitly requires a green source of electric power supply. For now, the charging station in Krittibas uses the grid for its source and 75 per cent of the electricity consumed in India is produced by coal — the most polluting fossil fuel — according to Ember’s energy statistics.

Compared to diesel engines, Kanuri said, electric vehicles may still be a more viable solution for change. “EVs are more energy efficient than internal combustion engine vehicles. This leads to lower GHG emissions even with India’s current electricity generation mix. EVs also have zero tailpipe emissions, that significantly contribute to local air pollution,” she said. 

E-mobility, only makes sense from a climate mitigation perspective if the electricity used is primarily or entirely from clean energy sources, according to Shefler. “But achieving this will take time, which brings us to energy transition—a period of gradual change where we replace fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas etc) with renewable energy sources (wind, solar, hydro, etc),” he said.

“As a transition measure, ferry boats in the Sundarbans could be charged using electricity from the grid, grid-connected distributed solar energy systems, or even off-grid solar energy systems. There isn’t just one correct solution—there are multiple viable pathways to achieve this,” Shefler added.

Before grid-connections were introduced in the region, Sundarbans reportedly had one of the highest numbers of solar plant installations in the world — approximately 2,00,000, off-grid connections. However, most of these projects are now non-operational or lie abandoned due to management issues following the arrival of grid energy in 2018. 

“The long-term goal should focus on ‘greening the grid’, creating a climate-resilient power infrastructure and promoting distributed renewable energy generation,” said Shefler. “These efforts will ensure a sustainable, low-carbon future while supporting the energy needs of e-mobility and beyond.”

India aims to expand its renewable energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030 and has pledged under the Paris Agreement to achieve 50 per cent of its electricity generation from non-fossil fuel sources by that time. The commitments have been backed by a spate of renewable energy tenders being issued by the central government.

Each state has also created its own energy goals and has action plans. West Bengal has a target to achieve 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. The Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and Ember’s Indian State’s Electricity Transition (2024) study found West Bengal’s progress towards renewable energy lagging behind. The share of renewable energy consumption in its total electricity consumption is currently at 10 per cent, one of the lowest in 21 Indian states under the study. 

That said, the state is inviting investments in charging stations, lithium batteries and electric infrastructure that align with the West Bengal’s goals to increase its EV share. 

Currently, with Rs 7 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) the state of West Bengal has one of the highest per unit cost of consumption for grid-produced electricity in the country. Cities such as Delhi have tariffs between Rs 3-6 per kWh. This may be significantly brought down by green energy, as the cost of wind and solar energy is estimated to fall to Rs 1.9 per kWh and Rs 2.3 per kWh, respectively, by 2030, found a TERI report.

Mondal's fuel costs have decreased since he switched to an electric motor; if solar energy could reduce the electricity bill, many boaters would agree to install these batteries, he said.

If the pilot runs successfully, WWF-India intends to introduce 82 boats across 41 ferry routes in five blocks of the Sundarbans.

WWF-India is working with West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency, West Bengal Pollution Control Board and the West Bengal Forest Directorate to promote non-polluting ferry services and forest patrolling, said Danda. 

“The operational and economic data is being shared with government agencies, including the district administration of South 24 Parganas district, which will help design policy and incentives for quick adoption of electric propulsion units for ferry and patrol boats. The Department of Nonconventional and Renewable Energy Sources, Government of West Bengal, has already gone on record stating that promotion of electric propulsion units is being actively considered,” he added.

For now, Mondal’s lone boat takes its first strides in that direction. 

20-year-old Anirban Mondal, whom the author met on the ferry boat, seemed full of youthful optimism when asked whether Sundarbans is ready for this change. “The world is modernising; so should we,” the youth stated.

This story was produced with the help of the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The content is the sole responsibility of the author and publisher