Even as the Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) has claimed to have wound up its operations of dredging 3 lakh cubic metres of sand as part of the beach nourishment project, the heavy accumulation of silt at the estuary in the Thengaithittu fishing harbour has come to haunt fishermen again with fishing vessels taking a pounding while entering and exiting the sea mouth.
A. Kangeyan, former president of Puducherry Fibre Boat Owners Association, claimed that fishermen had stopped venturing into the sea for the last two weeks due to unprecedented accumulation of silt at the sea mouth.
Though the DCI claimed that 3 lakh cubic metres of sand had been dredged, the work was not properly done and silt has now got accumulated again at the sea mouth . The money spent so far will be rendered useless unless the depth of the sea mouth is deepened up to five metres to suit the present requirements, he said.
“The decision to hand over the main dredging contract to DCI had resulted in unnecessary expenditure and accumulation of silt at the harbour. Had the contract been awarded through tenders as had been done in the past, dredging would not have been delayed,” Mr. Kangeyan said.
Boats face risk
“Boat owners, fishermen and their families have been affected the most. Many fishermen are staying away from the sea because of the risk of their boats running aground. The Department of Fisheries has been repeatedly turning a deaf ear to our complaints and no senior official has so far visited us to hear our grievance,” said Nagaraj, a fisherman of Veerampattinam.
A top government official said that the Dredging Corporation had already wound up its operations. However, there is no clarity on the extent of work completed by DCI.
Fishermen have also been finding it difficult to navigate their vessels to the harbour owing to silt accumulation because of the rough sea over the last two weeks. Hence, the department had awarded the sub-contract to MARG Karaikal Ltd. for emergency dredging to make the channel navigable for fishing vessels. MARG commenced the work last week as per the sub-contract.
The mouth would be dredged up to a depth of five metres to enable free movement of fishing vessels.
The work was expected to be completed in the next two to three weeks, an official said.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy told reporters on Saturday that DCI had not completed the work and the government had not released the payment.
A dredger of the Chennai Port Trust (CPT) will arrive in Puducherry and take up dredging of the inner channel and the fishing harbour, he added.
