The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Troubled times for Albuquerque fish-landing jetty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 20, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Troubled times for Albuquerque fish-landing jetty

By Anand Haridas

The fish-landing centre built at Albuquerque jetty.

KOCHI, MAY 19. The fish landing centre constructed at Albuquerque jetty, Fort Kochi, for shifting the fish vendors from Vasco da Gama Square, has run into trouble.

The jetty was commissioned a couple of years ago as part of the beautification programme for Fort Kochi which is one of the key tourist destinations in the region. The Department of Tourism spent about Rs. 10 lakhs for preparing the fish-landing jetty.

Fish vendors, however, complain that the move to shift the jetty has not benefited them at all. "Earlier, hundreds of boats used to land when trade was done at the beach along the Vasco da Gama Square. We were made to move from there to the new site with a promise that all these boats would also shift to here. However, this did not happen," said Ayub, one of the fish vendors who collected fish from boats that berthed here.

Many other vendors complained that the new jetty lacked enough space to handle more than 10 boats at a time. Another point that these vendors highlighted was that the Albuquerque jetty did not have facilities for auctioning the fish landed and to load it to the trucks when compared to the previous fish landing spots.

All it has now is a shed, constructed by the Department of Tourism, which is hardly used by the vendors and boatmen.

This is a point that the State Minister for Fisheries and Excise, K.V. Thomas, would prefer to counter. "It is not that there are not enough facilities, but the local crowd is refusing to adapt to new developments. This had been the bane of developmental activities in Fort Kochi all through," said Prof. Thomas.

There was another major development that played a significant role in the jetty's ill fate. The project was commissioned when Prof. Thomas was handling both Tourism and Fisheries portfolios. "Development works like these could not go on unless there is a coordination between both departments involved," Prof. Thomas said.

On their part, the boat owners prefer the jetty at Vypeen and Munambam to Fort Kochi for many reasons. "Albuquerque jetty is congested and does not have facilities. Also, it is not a safe jetty for small boats as it is placed too close to the shipping channel. But the main reason for us to opt for the Matsyafed jetty at Kalamukku in Vypeen is that the catch would fetch us a better price over there," said president of the Chellanam Kandakadavu Fishermen Development and Welfare Cooperative Society, K.V. Raphael.

Almost all members of the cooperative societies coming under Cluster No. 1 of the Matsyafed, which covers the region from Fort Kochi to Chellanam, prefer to move to Vypeen, they said. They remember that Fort Kochi used to be the spot where the biggest auction of fresh fish used to be done.

The basic problem is in the perspective of development. Fort Kochi does not need a development strategy based on fisheries activities, as tourism-related works are already there. So development works aimed at the fisheries sector should be moved to coastal belts like Chellanam and a mini fishing harbour as promised by the Minister sometime back would solve the developmental issues existing in that region also, Mr. Raphael said.

The Corporation councillors of the locality also support the argument that boat owners get a better deal and good treatment from vendors at Vypeen and Munambam when compared to those at Fort Kochi. The vendors at Fort Kochi have become so "unionised" that many boat owners refuse to berth their boats here, they add.

"We are planning to hold campaigns to create awareness about the comprehensive vision that we had while planning these projects. A lot of follow-up need to be done for the tourism work that we took up at Fort Kochi," said Prof. Thomas.

The bottom-line is that the fish-landing jetty that the Department of Tourism has built with much fanfare is fast falling out of use as both boat owners and fish vendors start looking for better options.

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