To promote sales of high quality fish and fish products, the Department of Fisheries plans to establish a modern fish stall-cum-food court at Veerapandi on the city outskirts at an estimated outlay of Rs. 10 lakh before December end.
Commissioner of Fisheries Shambu Kallolikar told The Hindu that the project, to be implemented through Tamil Nadu Fisheries Development Corporation, would be funded by the Central Government.
Both marine and freshwater fish would be sold through the stall at attractive prices.
To sell the fish fresh, a refrigerator would be installed to maintain the catch chilled.
The food court would sell value-added products like fish biriyani, fish soup, fried fish and fish cutlet, among other items, at affordable costs.
He said that it was on the anvil to establish three such modern fish stall-cum-food courts in Coimbatore also shortly.
Mr. Kallolikar said that for optimal utilisation of fishery resources, the department had chalked an elaborate plan to improve infrastructure facilities of various harbours and creation of additional fish storage/processing capacities in the State at a total outlay of about Rs. 200 crore in a phased manner.
As part of the project, a fish processing plant-cum-cold storage was planned at Nagapattinam with pre-processing, packaging and training facilities for local farmers embedded in it.
The Fisheries Commissioner said that two more fish landing centres were planned at Annakoil (Cuddalore district) and Nagoor (Nagapattinam district), as part of the package, to ensure hygienic handling of the catch as per the international standards.
Besides, a new fishing harbour would be constructed at Thengapattinam (Kanyakumari district) before 2014, he added.
Mr. Kallolikar said that another major component planned was the permanent opening of bar mouths in the respective confluences of Vellar and Uppanar with sea.
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