Tharuvaikulam fish landing centre to be upgraded into modern fishing harbour

THOOTHUKUDI

The vibrant Tharuvaikulam Fish Landing Centre, a base for more than 250 mechanised boats involved in deep sea multiday deep sea fishing, is all set to graduate into a full-fledged modern fishing harbour in near future.

 Responding to a query from Ottapidaaram MLA M.C. Shanmugaiah in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, Minister for Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Anita R. Radhakrishnan said the landing centre would be upgraded into a modern fishing harbour with all facilities after getting permission from Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.

 The Tharuvaikulam Fish Landing Centre, which came up three decades ago with just 25 mechanized boats, now houses 255 mechanised boats and 130 country boats. However, only 26 mechanised boats can be berthed at the ‘T’-shaped jetty of the fish landing centre due to lack of depth.

 “As sand accumulates near the jetty every minute, the depth has reduced from the optimum eight feet to just four feet, which poses serious threat to the boat’s safety. Hence, we can now berth the boats at the jetty’s tail areas where the depth is eight feet and above. We can berth only 26 boats due to this problem in tail areas while all other boats are anchored in the areas where the drivers find adequate depth. Hence, proper dredging should be done to accommodate more number of mechanised boats, all involved in multi-day deep sea fishing,” said A. Aniton of Tharuvaikulam.

Breakwater should be created to protect the boats berthed in the jetties from high tides and the sand getting accumulated along the jetty, he added.

 Fish exporter Manoharan said two more jetties with 200-metre-length should be constructed while the existing 200-feet-long jetty should also be extended to accommodate all mechanised boats.

 “Since fishing operation in Tharuvaikulam is growing leaps and bounds, it should be upgraded into a full-fledged modern fishing harbour with all facilities at the earliest so as to ensure more revenue for Tamil Nadu,” Mr. Manoharan said.