The slew of fishing harbour projects under various stages of construction in Nagapattinam and Mayiladuthurai districts are expected to pave way for hundreds of mechanised fishing boats to undertake deep sea fishing.
Since mechanised fishing boats have caused depletion of precious marine fishery resources, the harbour projects envisage an end to bottom trawling. The harbours will have the requisite infrastructure facilities to handle tuna and deep sea catches, officials said.
A Fishing Harbour at Poompuhar in Mayiladuthurai district that was constructed at a cost of ₹148 crore under a Centrally sponsored scheme was put to use a year back. The fishing harbour at Tranquebar under Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) to the tune of ₹120 crore is designed with a northern breakwater to a length of 330 metres, nouthern breakwater up to 1,060 metres and other land side facilities for the hygienic handling of catches.
The fishing harbour at Tranquebar will fulfil the long-term aspirations of the people of Tharangambadi and coastal villages like Chinnamedu, Chinnangudi, Thazhampettai, Pudupettai, Perumalpettai, Vellakoil, Kuttiyandiyur, Chandrapadi, and Chinnoorpettai.
The FIDF sanction of ₹ 100 crore was made for the fishing harbour with modern facilities at Vellapallam village in Nagapattinam district .
Earlier this year, the work on construction of a fishing harbour at Arcottuthurai in Nagapattinam district at a estimated cost of ₹150 crore was initiated for the benefit of several hundreds of fishermen of Kameswaram, Vilunthamavadi, Vanavanmahadevi, Vellapallam, Naluvedhapathi and Pushpavanam villages. The new fishing harbours have been planned as protected fishing harbour basins in order to facilitate fishing operation in all weather conditions, a senior official said.
The project for construction of the mini harbour in Nambiyar Nagar was initiated last November under self-sufficiency scheme of the State Government, to ease congestion at the Nagapattinam fishing harbour. The residents of the coastal village have contributed ₹11.43 crore as their one-third share for the over ₹34 crore project.
