India's seventh largest fishing harbour inaugurated in Bengal

State's largest harbour, costing Rs 60-crore, was thrown open by Governor M K Narayanan with an expectation to provide a major boost to marine fishing. Fully funded by the Centre, the harbour will generate employment, direct and indirect, in the state.

The Governor said the harbour, the seventh largest in India, would go a long way in meeting the long-standing demand of the fishing community for a modern harbour. Petuaghat is located on the Rasulpur river and has a decades-old marine fishing tradition owing to availability of adequate navigable depth during tides and proximity to rich fishing grounds.

Fisheries department sources said that 320 mechanised fishing vessels as well as 140 traditional boats were already engaged in fishing in the harbour site. State Fisheries Minister Kironmoy Nanda was present at the function while the Trinamool Congress boycotted it with its leader Sisir Adhikary, MP, staying away.