The fishermen of Nagapattinam area will heave a sigh of relief once the construction of the fishing harbour at Keechankuppam near here is completed.
At present, the small old harbour, belonging to the Maritime Board, is being utilised for the purpose of landing and anchoring the boats. As the space is quite insufficient, the Fisheries Department took up the work on the sprawling space of Keechankuppam where the work is being executed at an estimate of Rs.45 crore under the World Bank-funded Emergency Tsunami Rehabilitation Package (ETRP) scheme.
The harbour, on the backwaters of the Kaduvaiaru, runs to a cumulative length of 750 metres -- 250 metres on the north and 500 metres on the south.
While the construction of the harbour on the northern side had been completed and boats are being anchored there, dredging on the southern side has been in progress, according to sources. As many as 750 boats can be anchored in this area, at the rate of a metre for each boat.
The fishing harbour would have a slew of infrastructure associated with fishing. It would have a state-of-the-art sheds for mending the fishing nets, washing the fish-crates, generator room and other essential services.
Road, street lights facilitating access to the harbour would be provided in course of time, the official said.
The construction of the harbour would bring about a great relief to not only the fishermen of the town but also the Maritime Board which has planned to utilise the space for this purpose. Although one of the contractors who had taken up the work was delaying the execution, the Fisheries Department had utilised the services of a dealer for marketing the produce.
A cross section of Nagapattinam fishermen point out that the harbour would facilitate not only easy landing but also proper maintenance of the boats.
N. Rajappa and S. Mahalingam said fishermen found it difficult to maintain their boats during the ban period due to inadequate space at the old fishing harbour.
They had to incur a huge expenditure for the transit of boats from the waters to the sand area by incurring enormous expenditure.
The new modern harbour would be a big boon to them throughout the year, they said.
