RAMANATHAPURAM
The first phase of the long-due salvaging of 47 fishing trawlers, part of the more than 170 boats confiscated by Sri Lankan Navy since 2015 on a charge of trespassing into the territorial waters of the island nation and released on September 7, 2018, commenced on Thursday.
Escorted by the personnel attached to Mandapam Station of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG), 58 fishermen set sail in nine trawlers from Rameswaram fishing jetty around 7 a.m. for Karainagar in the northern part of Sri Lanka, marking the commencement of five-phase salvage operation, tentatively fixed from January 17 to February 6.
Deputy Director of Fisheries E. Kathavarayan saw off the salvage team members at the fishing jetty after security agencies verified their identities and completed other formalities. The salvage team, to be escorted by Sri Lankan Navy from the International Maritime Boundary Line, was expected to bring back at least 11 trawlers berthed in Karainagar after carrying out repair works by January 21.
A team of officials, led by Additional Director of Fisheries (Ramanathapuram) Johny Tom Varghese, had already reached Karainagar to work out the logistics. The team comprised two Assistant Directors, M. Kathiresan and A. Jayakumar, and two Inspectors of Fisheries, Baskar and Karthikeyan.
Fishermen leader P. Sesu Raja and mechanic Alwyn Fernando accompanied the team, officials said.
According to initial plans, the salvage team was to leave from Point Calimere in Nagapattinam district but the officials changed the point to Rameswaram to cut down travel time by more than 12 hours. The State government had sanctioned ₹ 47.94 lakh for the salvage operation, the officials said.
After the Lankan government ordered the release of the 173 trawlers, a team of officials, led by Mr. Varghese and fishermen representatives, assessed the condition of the boats in October and found only 53 vessels fit for salvage. After obtaining consent of the boat owners, they decided to salvage 47 vessels.
In the first two phases, the teams proposed to salvage 22 boats berthed in Karainagar, followed by 10 boats kept in Kiranchi, 11 boats berthed in Kalpitiya and four boats kept in Trincomallee in the third, fourth and the fifth phases respectively, the officials said.
