Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam   

‘Vizag fishing harbour the best in country’

Arvind Kumar

VISAKHAPATNAM: Fisheries Commissioner Arvind Kumar said on Monday the fishing habour in the city was the best in the country and supported the proposal pending since long for a Greenfield habour to meet long-term needs.

During an interaction with reporters here on Monday, he said it was better than Cochin fishing harbour so far as basic infrastructure was concerned. “The main problem here is that it is located on the area was under the control of Visakhapatnam Port Trust. As its maintenance became a problem, we recently set up a managing committee headed by District Collector with VPT Vice-Chairman and Commissioner of Police as members for better upkeep,” he disclosed.

On the proposal hanging fire for relocating the fishing harbour to Bhimili so as to enable the port to have additional area for expansion, he said at least Rs.100 crores was required to shift it. Earlier, it was agreed upon that the VPT and the Ministry of Agriculture would share it equally.

Exuding confidence that shrimp and tuna exports would go up, he expressed concern over misuse of norms for catching tuna by Letter of Permission vessels from Taiwan in Indian waters. He said shrimp exports would go up substantially once Vennamei culture was taken up on commercial basis. At present, permission was given to some aquaculture farms in Nellore to undertake culture seeds imported from Hawaii.

He said Andhra Pradesh accounted for over 50 per cent of country’s total marine exports. The foreign exchange earned last year from the State was around Rs.3,000 crores and more or less, this year also it would remain stagnant due to variety of factors. He said to get more catch, they were planning to introduce rationalisation of fishing voyages by mechanised boats and trawlers and enforce the conservation period strictly.

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