Chief Minister V Narayanasamy today kickstarted the dredging operations at the estuary near the fishing harbour in the neighbouring Vambakeerapalaym coastal village to ensure that the sand that had accumulated was desilted for easy movement of the fishing vessels.
The Dredging Corporation of India had been entrusted with the work of desilting the estuary and the work would go on for nearly three months to deepen the mouth of the fishing harbour, an official source said.
There were complaints from more than 20,000 fishermen of various coastal hamlets that they found it difficult to navigate the fishing vessels for some months now because of massive accumulation of sand at the estuary.
The work of desilting the estuary was first handed to a private contractor.
The Lt Governor Kiran Bedi however directed that the work of desilting the estuary should be done by the Dredging Corporation of India and the administration had since then requisitioned the services of the Corporation for the dredging work.
Welfare and Port Minister Kandasamy told newspersons that the dredging would go on for three months involving an expenditure of around Rs 14 crores.
He said that fishermen were not able to take up fishing activities for nearly four months because of difficulty in tackling the sand mounds at the estuary.
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