Kerala - Kochi   

Mother vessel sanctioned for Lakshadweep

Kochi: The Centre has approved the acquisition of a mother vessel of 100 metric tonnes by the Lakshadweep administration.

A proposal of the administration for acquiring the vessel, at a cost of not more than Rs.30 crore, had been earlier approved by the Standing Finance Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture in June, according to a release.

Lakshadweep Administrator B.V. Selvaraj had been pursuing the project, the first of its kind, and its approval had “brought unprecedented cheer among the fishing community of the islands,” it said.

Though the “mother vessel and factory vessel type fishing practice” is prevalent in many developed nations and the Maldives, this is the first time it is being tried out in the country. It is new to the fisheries sector here, the release added.

The mother vessel with facilities like plate freezers, blast freezers, cold storage for processing fish and keeping it fresh for a long period would help in enhancing fish production in the island. It could provide backing to a large number of small boats and enable them to fish in distant fishing grounds for about 10 to 15 days.

Apart from providing diesel, freshwater to the boats, the vessel could also help reduce their operational cost. The boats could avoid frequently returning to shore for unloading the catch and for bunkering. It would help in exploiting the resources in the distant fishing grounds, such as the reef areas of Valiyapani and Cheriyapani, which would give a fillip to the fishery-based industries in Lakshadweep and also lead to diversification in production to more commercially important and export-oriented products.

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