Following the long-time demand of the firsherfolk in the district, State Fisheries department recently sent proposals for construction of a mini fishing harbour at Juvvaladinne village in the district. Though the district has fish landing centres, lack of harbour is causing severe problems for the fishing community. Harbour provides a safe landing point for fishing boats on a regular basis as well as safeguarding their gear. The Union government sent a team of officials from the Central Institute of Coastal Engineering for Fishery for survey on the mini harbour at Bogole in August 2014 and later zeroed in on Juvvaladinne. Fisheries department sent proposal to the Centre for sanction of mini-fishing harbor at Juvvaladinne. District has only fish landing centres and this first mini-harbour, if constructed, will enable safe landing and safeguarding of fishing gear. The State Fisheries department proposed to construct the mini-harbour at a cost of more than Rs. 130 crore on 25 acres land and submitted the proposal to the Ministry of Shipping and other line departments. However, no technical permissions have been accorded by the Centre so far. The fishing sector has been undergoing serious crisis for the last one decade what with climate change, lack of finance, dearth of storage facilities and quick delivery of input, lack of awareness of market information, uncertain quality of fish, faulty measurement system, lack of market infrastructure and others. Of the 349 fish landing points in the State, Nellore district houses 75. Iskapalli, Utukukuru, Mypadu, Pathapalem, Upputeru at Krishnapatnam, Tamminpatnam, Arkatpalem, Kothapatnam, Kondur, Dugarajapatnam, and Pulinjerikuppam are the old and important centres in the district. If harbour comes up, there would be comfortable point for the fishermen in the coastal areas of Kavali and Bogole mandals. Krishnapatnam is the right place for the harbour but a huge port came up there and hence the government thought of alternative place close to Iskapalli fish landing centre which is viable where upland stream also joins the Bay, according to officials.
2016 Hyderabad Media House Limited/The Hans India.