The district administration has chalked out a plan to modernise the fishing harbour at Karaikal and has forwarded a proposal to the Union Government for approval.
Over 3,000 families have been residing in 10 coastal hamlets abutting the 24-km-long coast in Karaikal district. They depend on fishing and its allied activities as their major source of livelihood. The fishing harbour, located at the estuary of River Arasalar in Karaikal, was established in 2012 by utilising ₹47.46 crore from a Centrally sponsored scheme.
A few years ago, the Government of Puducherry executed a project funded by World Bank to modernise the fishing harbour in three phases at ₹19.52 crore to improve the infrastructure to ensure hygienic handling, processing and storage of fish. Construction of boat repair yards, chilling units, and fish processing units were among the infrastructure works carried out under the project.
Fishermen in the Karaikal enclave have been seeking to utilise a few metres of land adjacent to the existing harbour to construct a jetty and urged the district administration to ensure cleanliness and proper road facilities inside the fishing harbour.
Karaikal Collector A. Kulothungan inspected the fishing harbour to take stock of the infrastructure and other facilities. He directed the Fisheries and Public Works Department officials to repair the roads within the fishing harbour and plug the leakages in the drainage system.
He told The Hindu that the district administration had prepared a proposal to modernise the fishing harbour at an estimate of ₹22 crore. The port, spread over 20 hectares, had enough space to execute modernisation and expansion works. At present, the proposal to build a jetty and a fish drying and auctioning yard had been prepared and forwarded to the Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying for approval. Soon after the clearance, the modernisation works would begin.
