Kunthukal near Pamban in the Gulf of Mannar will get a Rs. 59 crore-fish landing centre, Minister for Finance and Fisheries D. Jayakumar told the Assembly on Tuesday. He said it would help prevent congestion in the Palk Bay. Sources explained that around 400 boats have begun fishing to the other side of the Pamban bridge where there is access to the open sea. The Minister also announced construction of other fish landing centres at a cost of Rs. 30 crore. These centres would help anchor the boats closer to the shore. A corpus fund of Rs. 1.30 crore would be created in each coastal district where the respective Collectors could sanction funds in times of emergencies, he said, adding fishermen cooperative societies would get priority when it came to fishing rights in inland waterbodies. Mr. Jayakumar said Fisheries University would set up a Deep Sea Technology Training Centre to develop the required manpower for the project to replace trawlers with deep sea vessels in southern coastal districts. An official source explained that an off-shore centre would come up at Thoothukudi and a field centre at Thuthur in Kanniyakumari district. The university would also provide entrepreneurship training to members of self-help groups and the youth in fish processing in Nagapattinam. He announced that the State government would obtain assistance from Green Climate Fund for the protection of Tamil Nadu’s 1,067- km-long coastline. It had sought over Rs. 1,000 crore for projects in the first phase.