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A boat landing facility will come up at Veerampattinam to serve as a secondary location to berth mechanised vessels as part of a larger plan to revive the Puducherry Port.
Fishermen from Veerampattinam and Vembakerapalayam currently use the port area to anchor their vessels and the alternate berthing facility is seen as a preliminary step towards the government’s plans for revival of the Port.
A delegation led by Minister for Port M. Kandasamy visited the site for the boat landing facility on Thursday and assured the fishing community to take into account their concerns related to operationalisation of the port.
Around 50 fishing vessels are currently berthed at the port. Once commercial operations from the port begin, it would be difficult for the fishermen to use the area for anchoring vessels.
The new facility at Veerampattinam has been planned as an alternate location, the official said, adding it would be built at a cost of Rs. 2 crore.
As for measures to put the port into operational mode, the government has sought Rs. 12 crore from Housing Urban Development Corporation to dredge the Ariankuppam River mouth to facilitate entry of ships with a draft of minus four metres. The Port Department has decided to excavate three lakh cubic metres of sand from the river mouth and transport it through a pipeline to the beach area near the Gandhi Statue as part of beach nourishment.
The Cabinet that met on July 5 decided to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Chennai Port Trust (CPT) for developing the port. The MoU, which is expected to be signed during the last week of this month or early next month, would pave the way for making the port as a satellite port of CPT. The agreement would be on a revenue-sharing basis between CPT and the government.
An official privy to the discussions with CPT said the government expects substantial revenue as it expects to handle 0.3 million tonnes of cargo annually.
Meanwhile, the Alliance for Good Governance (ACG), a collective of non-governmental organisations here, considers the move to revive the port as “retrograde” causing environmental damage to the coastal villages.
In a memorandum to the Chief Minister, ACG said “the port will spell disaster, the lorry traffic (one every minute considering a turnover of one million tonne a year), will completely choke the roads, create huge health impact owing to pollution and cripple the tourism industry.” Instead of developing the port, the government should have considered developing the 150 acre site at the port into a recreational hub.
“A simple SWOT analysis will tell you that this space should ideally be developed for recreation and tourism activities which will not only bring economic prosperity but create huge livelihood opportunities,” it added.
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