Even as the BJD continues to be locked in a dispute with the BJP-run Chhattisgarh Government on Mahanadi river water-sharing, the Odisha Government on Wednesday stepped up its demand for dredging of the Mahanadi mouth by dashing off a petition to the Centre.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik urged the Union Shipping Ministry to take up the dredging work of the Mahanadi mouth for unhindered discharge of water into the Bay of Bengal.
In a letter, Patnaik urged Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari for an expeditious resumption of the dredging work.
“I request you to issue appropriate instructions to the Paradip Port Trust (PPT) authorities to take up dredging of the river mouth and the navigational channel urgently for smooth and safe navigation of the fishing vessels,” Patnaik said.
It is reported that fishermen have been demanding for dredging of the river mouth for reduction of accidents and casualties, which are showing an increasing trend, Patnaik stated in the letter.
The Central Institute of Coastal Engineering for Fishery, Bengaluru, has reported that due to the beach nourishment work undertaken by the PPT for protection of the sea wall, the siltation at the Mahanadi mouth has been aggravated and no remedial measures have been taken to arrest the movement of sand towards the river mouth and navigation channel, the letter said.
The Paradip fishing harbour commissioned in 1996 under the Union Agriculture Ministry funding continues to be Odisha’s largest marine fishing hub. The management of the harbour had taken a beating as it remains under the administrative control of the PPT while State Marine Fisheries department has little say in harbour development matters. As the dual administrative arrangement of this nature hit the harbour stakeholders a lot, the port had handed over the harbour to the State Government in 2011. An estimated 3,500 tonnes of high-grade shrimps are exported every year from this fishing hub. The annual shrimp export turnover from the harbour is to the tune of `150 crore.