Fishermen stir against proposed ship corridor

Madurai

The designated traffic corridor for merchant vessels sailing along India’s Western seafront was proposed as remedy to bring down incidence of mid sea collision with boats.Fr. Churchill, general secretary, South Asian Fishermen Fraternity (SAFF), who organised the protest, demanded the central government to scrap the designated notification of new corridor for merchant ships.The project covers 15 nautical miles from coastline of the Gulf of Kutch to Kanniyakumari. This coastline serves to be an ideal fishing ground, which is being relied on scores of fishermen by catamaran, country boats and mechanised boats day and night.The new ship corridor was aimed at protecting few corporate ship companies and to attract tourists, but it was against the interest of traditional fishermen, who earn their livelihoods and contribute more than Rs 60,000 crore as foreign exchange revenue for India.He said the proposed shipping corridor was planned through centre’s Sagarmala project and destroy the coastal community. The Directorate General of Shipping had not made consultations with any stakeholder before issuing notification of the shipping corridor. Moreover, he said Union Minister of Shipping, Nitin Gadkari had not yet acted against those held responsible for mid sea collision, which involved boats on board fishermen and merchant ships in the Indian ocean.If the proposed shipping corridor was implemented, it would be a threat to lives and livelihoods of fishermen. Hence, the Shipping Ministry should drop its plan of this new corridor, he said.