Union Minister of Fisheries Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala and Minister of Ports Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal laid the foundation stone today for the project to modernise and upgrade the Cochin Fishing Harbour.

The Central government had approved the Rs 169 crore proposal of Cochin Port Trust for the modernization and upgradation of Cochin Fishing Harbour at Thoppumpady with central financial assistance of Rs.100 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Yojana Scheme in a convergence with the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways under Sagarmala in March 2022.

The project will benefit 700 fishing boats operating at Cochin fishing harbour, which will support direct livelihoods of about 10,000 fishers and indirect livelihoods of about 30,000 fishers across the value chain. The modernization project will bring about a substantial improvement in the hygienic conditions and increase in earnings from export of fish and fish products.

The main activities taken up under modernization include establishment of air-conditioned auction halls, Fish dressing unit, Packaging unit, internal roads, loading & unloading platforms, Office, Dormitory and Food court. The project has a public-private-partnership component of Rs 55.85 crore which include components such as establishment of cold storages, slurry and tube ice plants, multi -level car parking facility, reverse osmosis plant, food court and retail market.

The Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying stated that the Government has approved projects to the tune of more than Rs 7,500 crore in the country for the development of modern fishing harbours and fish landing centres under Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund, Sagarmala scheme and Pradhan Mantri Matsya Yojana Scheme.

The programme was attended by senior officials of the Kerala government of Cochin Port Authority.