Jagan to lay stone for new fishing harbour on May 22

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will visit the Machilipatnam (Bandar) Port on May 22, where a modern fishing harbour at a cost of Rs 348 crore is being constructed. Later the Chief Minister will address a public meeting.

Krishna district Collector P. Rajababu said on Friday that on May 22, the Chief Minister will take part in Bhoomi Puja for the construction of Machilipatnam Port. He instructed the police officers to speed up the security arrangements.

The Collector said that construction at the fishing harbour is in progress. He explained that 70 per cent of the excavation works have already been completed with the help of dredgers to remove 22 lakh cubic metres of silt along the 3-km main canal route from Seamouth.

He said that 23 buildings were being constructed on the 28 acre area within Machilipatnam Fishing Harbour. An auction hall, administrative building, gear cutting, rest house, police station, petrol bunk, ice manufacturing unit that makes 3,000 ice blocks per day, canteen and other buildings will be constructed on this premises.

Former minister Nani said that dredging works will be done at a depth of 3.5 metre and 10.50 lakh cubic metre of soil will be excavated so that for the next 50 years local fishermen's boats will be able to go safely into the sea without any sandbank obstruction.

He said that silt of the Krishna river on the south side of the sea wall is causing obstruction and to prevent this, a long wall of 1,240 metre on the south side and 1,150 metre on the north side will be constructed. He said that a 790-metre 'K' wall will be constructed in this fishing harbour to accommodate 600 boats. Better facilities will be provided for export and import of fishery products.

AP Marry Time Phase-1 Fishing Harbour executive engineer K. Munireddy and senior project manager NDS Prasad explained to the Collector about the work being done in the fishing harbour.

Meanwhile, the officials are making arrangements for the Chief Minister’s public meeting at the eight-and-a-half-acre Bharat Scouts and Guides regional training camp ground near the Chilakalapudi. Former minister and Machilipatnam MLA Perni Venkataramaiah alias Nani with Krishna district Collector P. Rajababu and others inspected the arrangements at Machilipatnam.

Later, they also inspected the helipad area of the parade ground.