Jetty at Nani Daman to be ready by March

Daman-based construction firm Indianabuild has once again started construction of the jetty on the north bank of Damanganga river in Nani Daman.

The project, which is already late by four months, had stopped for a month owing to lack of funds. The project is expected to be over by March this year.

"Omnibus Industrial Development Corporation (OIDC), from which the company got the contract, did not have the required fund. This is the reason why we had to stop the work," said N P Tank, site engineer, Indianabuild. The tender was floated by the Public Works Department (PWD), Daman.

Infrastructure problems and bad weather too hampered the project. "Apart from rains, the factor which affected the work was the restriction of doing the work using only one machine," said Tank.

"Though we had three machines for erecting the pillars, PWD's old jetty was not strong enough to tolerate the vibrations generated by the three machines simultaneously," he added.

The Rs 3.5 crore jetty project will have 42 pillars. The width of the jetty is 10.5 meters and the length is around 61 meters, 20 meters more than the old one which got washed away in 2004 floods. Once it is completed the fishermen of Nani Daman will be the main beneficiaries.

"In the absence of the jetty it's hard to load and unload a boat with ice-slabs and caught fishes. Our work will become easy as there would be no need to go in the neck-deep water," said Mahesh Tandel, fisherman in Daman. There are around 20,000 fishermen in Daman and around 500 boats.

"Out of them 150 boats are for daily fishing (going in the morning and returning by evening) and 350 boats go for a longer time for a period of 10-12 days," said another fisherman. On an average a boat carries 20-22 ice-slabs costing Rs 65 each.