Central team’s fishing harbour visit raises hopes of fishers

The recent visit of an expert team comprising of scientists and experts from eminent institutions across the country to inspect the Thengapattanam fishing harbour in Kanniyakumari district has brought the much sought relief to the fishermen as they are now confident that their long pending demand for a new harbour will be realised soon.

“So far, 27 fishermen have died in the last three years since the construction of the harbour. We have been demanding the state to demolish the existing fishing harbour and to construct a new one in a scientific manner. The visit of the central team has given us the confidence of the new harbour,” P Justin Antony, founder president, International Fishermen Development Trust (INFIDET), told DT Next.

The construction work for Thengapattanam fishing harbour commenced in 2010, but was completed only in 2018. Fishermen of 16 coastal villages in Kanniyakumari are dependent on the fishing harbour in which there are more than 800 mechanised boats. Ever since it was completed there were several accidents in the harbour in which fishermen died and boats sustained damages. To stop the deaths, there were demands to construct a new harbour.

Following their demands, the state allotted Rs 137 crore for a new harbour and in the first phase allotted Rs 77 crore. To construct the fishing harbour in a scientific manner, based on the request of the state, the central team headed by Scientist MV Ramanamoorthy, from National Institute of Ocean Technology, inspected the harbour and interacted with fishermen.

Justin Antony said that he had urged them to include local fishermen in their team to aid them in designing the new harbour. The expert team had opined that the narrow path and excess sand deposit has resulted in boat accidents and had assured that works will be undertaken on war footing.