Minister for Ports, Environment and Inland Water Transport J. Krishna Palemar said on Monday that the Government would be constructing seawalls in the erosion-prone areas of the three coastal districts at a cost of Rs. 700 crore.
Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Palemar said that 70 per cent of this Rs. 700 crore would be borrowed from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the remaining 30 per cent would be shared by the Union and State governments. The Government had already released Rs. 264 crore for the first phase of work, he said.
The Minister said that Rs. 216 crore of the Rs. 264 crore had been set aside for the seawalls at Ullal in Dakshina Kannada, since the beach there had been severely affected by erosion. While Rs. 14 crore would be spent for seawalls in the affected areas of Mangalore, Rs. 34 crore would be spent for seawalls in Udupi district, he said.
Revenue
The Government wanted to augment the revenue being generated at various ports in the State. Hence 10 ports, including Tadari and Belikeri, would be developed under public-private partnership (PPP) on build, operate, own, share and transfer mode.
The Maritime Board would supervise the developmental activities at the ports. The ports generated revenue of Rs. 24 crore during 2008-09 and Rs. 28 crore during 2009-10.
The Government was aiming at generating Rs. 300 crore revenue from these ports, Mr. Palemar said.
Third stage
The third stage of work on the Malpe fisheries harbour would be taken up at a cost of Rs. 52 crore. The Hungarcutta, Gangolli and Kodikanyana ports in Udupi district would be developed at a cost of Rs. 3 crore each. His department had submitted a proposal for constructing a fisheries jetty at Kodi (Kundapur), even as Rs. 57 crore had been sanctioned for constructing a fisheries jetty in Mangalore, Mr. Palemar said. Funds had been sanctioned for the construction of 5,000 houses under the Matsyashraya scheme. But only 1,000 beneficiaries in Udupi and 35 in Dakshina Kannada district had made use of the scheme, he said.
