Union Minister urges officials to complete work on Thoppumpady fisheries harbour before deadline

Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala urged those executing the work and officials concerned to complete expansion and modernisation of the Cochin Fisheries Harbour at Thoppumpady before the deadline

Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala urged those executing the work and officials concerned to complete expansion and modernisation of the Cochin Fisheries Harbour at Thoppumpady before the deadline. The minister sent out the appeal after he laid the foundation for the work here on Sunday. The earlier deadline for completion of the ₹160-crore work was March 2024.

There will be about two months during which fishing operations are limited due to the annual trawling ban. That window of time could be utilised fully to expedite the work, the minister told the gathering of stakeholders at the foundation laying. Fishermen, fisheries trade union leaders, people’s representatives including MP Hibi Eden, MLAs T.J. Vinod and K. J. Maxi, seafood exporters, boat operators, and Cochin Port Authority and Marine Products Export Development Authority officials took part.

Mr. Eden had said earlier that the work on the fishing harbour was moving slowly and wanted it to pick up speed. He also appealed to the Union Minister to consider upgrading the Munambam fisheries harbour, one of the largest in the State.

The fisheries harbour in Thoppumpady, one of the largest in the country, was established in 1978 under the supervision of Cochin Port Trust on a total area of 27.86 acres. Of that, a total of 15.63 acres was used for industrial development. Around seven acres of the land holding is used for fishing boats to unload their catch and repack them for onward sales.

There are between 40 and 60 boat landings at the harbour daily and total fish landing is to the tune of 250 tonnes a day. Most of the fish go as raw materials for the fish processing units in Kochi and the neighbouring district of Alappuzha.

The modernisation of the fishing harbour will involve an investment of ₹169.17 crore. There will be private-public participation investment of ₹55.84 crore. The cost of construction and civil works will be to the tune of ₹101 crore.

The overall project is funded through grants from Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana and Sagarmala project of the Ministry of Ports .