Jetty for traditional boats at Bengre

A separate jetty for anchoring traditional boats is expected to come up at Bengre, as the proposal has been approved and technical approval is expected to follow soon.

The project is being taken up under Fisheries department’s ‘Nabard 24 Project’ and will be implemented by the department of Ports and Inland Water Transport at an estimated cost of Rs 3.37 crore.

The jetty will be located adjacent to the third phase of Mangaluru fisheries harbour.

The fishermen had been demanding a jetty to anchor the traditional crafts since many years.

The jetty will have a width of 80 metres and a length of 100 metres.

Once the jetty is constructed, 100 traditional crafts can be anchored without any
hassle.

According to Sujan Rao, the assistant executive engineer in the Port department, the jetty project had been approved and is awaiting technical sanction.

“There are about 150 traditional fishing crafts in Mangaluru. These traditional boats engage in fishing, during 45-day ban on fishing, within a 20-km radius from the shore,” he added.

Traditional fishermen use gill nets during fishing. Without a jetty, they were struggling to anchor their boats at the Bengre ferry jetty.

Traditional boat owners had said that there was no space left for the traditional boats to anchor. A separate jetty for anchoring traditional boats will benefit the owners immensely, they had specified.

“The problem of berthing is worse in monsoon as it is off-season and all themechanised boats are anchored at the harbour. All the boats are berthed close to one another
in rows at the quay. There was a need for a separate berthing facility as the number of boats has increased over a period of time,” boat owners added.