Space for navigation at the Fishing Harbour may increase soon with the Visakhapatnam Port Trust adopting a two-pronged approach to get the unused trawlers removed.
Efforts made earlier had not yielded any result. This time, Visakhapatnam Port Chairman M.T. Krishna Babu has taken a bold move to identify the trawlers with court problems and others without any case so that they could be taken to the slipway and later dismantled as part of scrapping in order of priority.
There are 60 to 65 trawlers which are either abandoned by their owners due to non-payment of bank loans or recurring losses. Some of them have also sunk over the years.
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As per rules, ‘no objection certificate’ from AP Pollution Control Board is a pre-requisite for their removal. For past several years, the board has been objecting to issuing of NOC despite several representations from the port as well as the Association of Fishing Professionals and Association of Indian Fishery Industries (AIFI).
The board has been insisting on shifting the vessels to a ship-breaking unit, which is only available at Alang in Gujarat. As this is not possible, now efforts are being made for dismantling them and later shifting the parts to scrap market without causing any pollution.
One-third of berthing space at the Fishing Harbour set up by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1976 in an area of 24 hectares is occupied by the abandoned and sunken vessels. According to an estimate, 14 trawlers have sunk with a hole in the hull. The oil tanks are also said to be empty.
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Mr. Krishna Babu told The Hindu that in the first list, they would remove some of the trawlers without court cases safely to the slipway and later begin their scrapping process. Subsequently, efforts would be made to remove other vessels with court permission to ensure ‘operational safety.’