Hailakandi: Assam will develop 10,000 fisheries to generate employment, state fisheries minister Parimal Suklabaidya said on Monday.

The minister was at a fish festival held on the sidelines of the three-day Namami Barak. Suklabaidya said the project to develop the fisheries would be implemented under the rural infrastructure development fund of Nabard, amounting to nearly Rs 100 crore.

"The festival has attracted lakhs of visitors. This shows that a fish revolution is on the cards not only in Barak Valley but in the entire state," he said.

Speaking as resource person at a seminar on the production of quality fish seeds using modern technology, Kalyani-based Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture principal scientist P.P. Chakraborty said there were immense opportunities in cultivating fish using scientific methods in Barak Valley.

Fisheries director S.K. Das said they have displayed various models of scientific fish cultivation at the 12 stalls set up at the festival.

"Forty per cent discount on local variety of fishes was an added attraction," Das said.

The fish cooking contest, too, was a hit.

However, the competition where participants had to pierce the eye of a fish with an arrow was the most popular.

Of the 1,000 participants, only three persons, among them Udharbond MLA Mihir Kanti Shome, were successful.

Suklabaidya also participated in the contest, which carried a 2kg fish as prize.