Harbour Engineering Department (HED) officials have assured fishermen at the fish landing centre at Ayikkara that the ongoing dredging work to remove silt in the Mappila Bay fishing harbour channel and basin will be expedited by mid-April.
On Sunday, a fishing boat had hit the sandbank at the mouth of the fishing harbour. The fishing boat, which capsized near the harbour, was damaged sparking a protest by the fish workers who observed a fisheries hartal at Ayikkara on Monday.
Fishermen also staged a march to the office of the HED. The fish workers in the area have been demanding removal of the silt from the harbour mouth that they claim is damaging fishing boats.
The issue had sparked a violent incident before when a fishing boat had capsized in June.
A protest march by fishermen over this had turned violent when the protesters ransacked the offices of the HED and the Fisheries Department at Mappila Bay.
Following the fish workers hartal on Monday, a meeting of the HED officials was held here in the presence of Additional District Magistrate O. Muhammad Aslam.
It was decided at the meeting that the agency that contracted the dredging work will be asked to accelerate the ongoing removal of the silt.
When contacted, HED Executive Engineer John Varghese told The Hindu that as per the contract, 4,80,000 cubic metre silt has to be dredged from the mouth of the harbour and the basin during a period of one-and-a-half years.
After the dredging work began in February, only 6,000 cubic metre silt has been removed, he said.
The contractor had assured that a bigger dredger would be brought here by mid-April to increase the rate of dredging, Mr. Varghese said.
