Pending dredging work results in damage of six fishing boats

Pending dredging work results in damage of six fishing boats

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Apr 20: Six anchored fishing boats were destroyed in the storms that lashed Mangalore last night. Shashikumar Bengre, the member of Trawl Boats Union, said that the pending dredging work is responsible for boats getting damaged even in low tide.

 

 

 

The damaged boats are Aishwarya, Deepali, Mahamayi Prasanna, Guliga Prasanna, Jalapanduranga, and Jala Nagini belonging to Madhava Puthran, Omkarnath, Madhava Suvarna, Loknath, Narasimha Shriyan, and Harinath Puthran, respectively. Water leaked into the engines and diesel tanks of these boats and damaged them to a huge extent. The total financial loss has been estimated to be somewhere between Rs. 80,000 and Rs. 1 lakh per boat.

Mr. Bengre said that, in spite of the sufferings of the local fishing community, the concerned officials have not bothered about the pending dredging work and haven’t even given compensations for the damaged boats. He said that the Mangalore Harbour needs to be extended as soon as possible. 

He said that, during the times of the Madras Government, 2 dredgers used to remove accumulated silt annually, but silt has not be removed for nearly 4 years, resulting in all these losses. The level of water has gone down after the appearance of the shipyard and because of the accumulated silt boats get damaged even in low tide, he said.

He urged the officials concerned to take note of the issue before the monsoons set in and more boats are damaged.