Fishermen-Govt Standoff over 1.6 km EMRIP stretch ends

Chennai:

The standoff between fishermen and authorities over the widening of 1.6 km stretch for the Chennai Road Port Connectivity Project (formerly Ennore Manali Road Improvement Project) ended with National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) promising to lay interior roads in the harbour and ensuring free movement of fishermen.

The agreement was reached after Chennai collector S Jayanthi held meeting with various stakeholders including NHAI, police, fishermen and port officials.

This comes in the wake of Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan vowing to finish the Rs 600 crore project by June 2013 target. “There are certain issues and we want to resolve it by involving all stake holders,” he had stated while reviewing the project recently.

The meeting also decided to lay dual-way seven metre service road to ensure free movement of fishermen. A release said that it was also decided to lay temporarily five metre wide road to ensure works of the fishermen are not affected due to road widening works. The meeting also discussed providing various facilities to fishermen which included toilets, drinking water, roads, streetlights and health care facilities.

The meeting also decided to extend the existing auction platform on the seaside. The Port Trust will dredge the area beneath the new auction platform within a month, the release said.

The release said that it was also decided that the government would pay the fishermen a rent of Rs one per day after entering into a rental agreement. It was also decided that the fishermen will vacate the land within three days.