TN government plans fishing harbour in Thiruvottiyur

TN government is planning to set up a tuna fishing harbour north of Chennai near Thiruvottiyur in Tamil Nadu. The new fishing harbour will have fish handling halls, auction hall, cold storage, ice factory, fuelling station, power backup centres and dormitory for workers.

It will have a capacity to handle 300 FRP boats, 300 trawlers and 200 tuna vessels. At present, there are about 300 boats operating from the Chennai fishing harbour exclusively to venture deep into the Bay of Bengal to catch tuna and bring in about 1,000 tonnes every month.

The total cost of the project is estimated at ₹ 2412 million.

It may be noted that, the project was earlier conceived and its environmental clearance was challenged by National Green Tribunal and the same was cleared in September 2020.