Protests have mounted along the coastal belt of the city against the failure of the authorities to tow away a huge dredger that got beached at the Kakkathoppe coast in the city on June 22.
On Thursday hundreds of residents from the coastal areas marched to the Chinnakada traffic round point from Pallithottam and blocked the National Highway for about 30 minutes. Inaugurating the blockade, Eravipuram parish priest Fr. Milton George said the beached dredger was creating sea erosion problems along the Kakkathoppe coastline. A good number of houses stand threatened and if the authorities’ apathy continued, the agitation would be strengthened, he said. Traffic along the Chinnakada course of the National Highway was held up because of the blockade.
Assurance
With the intervention of Kollam Tahsildar P. Gopalakrishnan with an assurance that talks will be held in the presence of the District Collector within the next five days to solve the issue led to the demonstrators calling off the blockade.
The Mumbai-based dredger had docked at the Kollam Port in March 2013 for repairs on developing engine trouble en route to Karwar from Sri Lanka. After repairs, the port authorities did not give clearance for the vessel to sail, as the owners failed to pay port charges of Rs.40 lakh. This led to litigation and the vessel had to be kept docked at the port.
When the State-level coastal shipping programme was launched from Kollam later that year, the port authorities moved the ship three nautical miles away to facilitate the inaugural function. Since then the ship had been lying anchored there. The unoccupied dredger broke loose from its moorings on June 22 last and got washed up at the Kakkathoppe beach.
