CHENNAI: The State Fisheries department has set in motion the process of constructing three fishing harbours in Kanyakumari district.

While two of these have been planned under the build, own, operate and transfer mode, the third will be a Centrally-sponsored venture.

Muttom and Rajakkamangalamthurai will have the harbours under the BOOT arrangement. The third will be located at Thengaipattinam.

For the two BOOT projects, the department has sought responses from different companies. "We plan to complete the scrutiny of the responses from the companies by the month-end," says a senior official.

The fishing harbours have been proposed as the district has more than 1,700 mechanised boats. There are no fishing harbours or landing centres in the district along the west coast.

The proposed harbour at Thengaipattinam will take care of 750 mechanised boats while Muttom and Rajakkamangalamthurai will have the capacity for 300 each. The total cost of the three harbours is estimated at Rs. 81 crore.

The Government issued orders for the Rajakkamangalamthurai and Thengaipattinam harbours in December last year. It had cleared the papers for Muttom in July.

In the case of the Rajakkamangalamthurai harbour, the developer will be selected through an open competitive bidding process. The Director of the Fisheries will constitute a management committee to monitor the administration of the proposed harbour.

According to the Government order on Thengaipattinam, the harbour construction will take four years. As the State Government has to bear one half of the project cost, it decided to sanction the release of 2.72 crore for implementation of the first phase which includes the cost for land acquisition.

At present, the harbour at Chinna Muttom on the east coast handles about 300 boats. To cater to the remaining boats, a proposal for extension of the harbour has been sent to the Centre. It will cost Rs. 19 crore.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail