KARACHI, May 30: Khair Muhammad Junejo, federal minister for food, agriculture and livestock, on Thursday assured that the operations at the Korangi Fish Harbour will take off next month.

He was talking to newsmen after attending a briefing by the managing director of the Korangi Fish Harbour Authority.

A total of seven applications for the licenses of “Tuna Liner” are under scrutiny which would be finalized shortly. Under the new fishing policy medium-sized fishing vessels ranging from 100 to 250 tons will be allowed to operate between 12 to 35 nautical miles, for which the government has issued licenses to 30 medium size trawlers in two economic zones allocated for the purpose.

“You will see a lot of fishing activities at the harbour within the next couple of months”, he said during his visit to the Korangi Fish Harbour in Karachi.

The minister said the harbour had been constructed specially for deep-sea fishing, but due to the shift in the policy it had been halted for a number of years. However, he said, the present government had taken measures to make it operational.

He said the harbour’s debt servicing was around Rs40 million annually, but with the arrival of vessels and resumption of operations it would it would be able to come out of default which would be around Rs301 million in the year 2003.

On the question of migration of boats from the Karachi Fish Harbour to the Korangi Fish Harbour, he said though all the facilities were available, they were not being utilized. He said an agreement with the Sindh government was reached to shift 500 boats but no practical step had been taken so far.

He said that in the new policy, installation of Global Positioning System (GPS) had been made obligatory for each vessel so that they could be monitored effectively and kept at bay from the economic zone reserved for local fishermen.

For monitoring of trawlers, three stations would be set up by the ministry, of which one would be established in Pasni (Balochistan), and the other two in Karachi, he said.

Earlier, Iqbal Ahmed Turk, managing director Korangi Fish Harbour Authority, briefing on the functions of the inoperative harbour, said it was established under an ordinance in 1982 for exploiting fish resources beyond territorial waters (12 nautical miles).

“The project was set up with the financial assistance of the Asian Development Bank, equivalent to US$30 million. The total cost of the project is Rs938.139 million. A total for 709-meter-long jetty has been constructed with an effective water front structure of 1km to facilitate the operation of 408 vessels of various sizes to land a catch of 92,000 metric ton annually,” he said.

He told that an unauthorized jetty had been constructed by a private entrepreneur in the vicinity of the Korangi Harbour which was being used for unloading trash fish and was creating traffic hazards for fishing boats/vessels berthing at the harbour.

He said that for safe operation it was necessary that the unauthorized jetty be closed and landings be diverted to the Ibrahim Haidery jetty.

Meanwhile, two medium-sized fishing trawlers commenced their operation from the Korangi Fish Harbour on Thursday after obtaining licenses from the government to exploit vast fish resources beyond 12 nautical miles. Although licenses have been issued to some 30 trawlers, only two vessels under a joint venture started their operations. Another two are expected to reach the harbour soon.

The fishing activities at the harbour had come to a standstill on November 1996 as the government banned the operations of deep-sea trawlers for a number of reasons, including the hue and cry raised by local fishermen.—APP/PPI