Centre approves deep-sea fishing harbour in Bengal

Kolkata, Aug 18 (UNI) The Union government will set up a deep-sea fishing harbour at Petuaghat, a coastal village of East Midnapore district, off the Bay of Bengal with an investment of Rs 60 crore.

West Bengal Minister of Fisheries and Aqua-culture Kiranmoy Nanda told UNI today that the proposal for the fishing harbour at Petuaghat has been approved in-principle by the Union Agriculture Ministry on the basis of a techno-feasibility study report by the Central Institute of Coastal Engineering for Fishery.

The government will fund the total project.

''This new project at Petuaghat will reduce fuel costs as it is only 60 kms from the sandheads. The poaching will be lesser,'' he said.

Apart from the fishing harbour, a standard market and a pre-processing centre will be built adjacent to the harbour.

At present, there are five such harbours in the country, located in Vizag, Paradeep, Veraval, Mumbai and Kochi.

In a bid to increase fish exports from the state, the government has planned to set up two more fishing harbours- one at Khejuri and the other one at Sagar-, which would take the total number to seven.

''We will get 50 per cent assistance from the Centre and the rest will be state funding,'' Mr Nanda said.

''Currently we export fishes worth Rs 5600 crore per annum. With these new harbours on the anvil, we target an export figure of around Rs 1,000 crore per year,'' he said.

At present about 18,000 tonne of fishes are exported. The state government intends to increase it to 22,000 tonne by next two years.

UNI JYN PC SKU DS1107