THE FISH-LANDING JETTY THAT COLLAPSED IN PARADIP. TELEGRAPH PICTURES

Paradip, Aug. 8: A strategic structure of fish-landing jetty has collapsed, posing threat to Paradip fisheries harbour, the state’s largest marine produce hub.

The cave-in, which took place yesterday, proved government agencies’ failure in acting on time in preventing further damage to the jetty. On November 16 last, a portion of the jetty had collapsed.

The 50 metre-long damaged structure is located near the confluence point of the Mahanadi and the Bay of Bengal. The fish catch from the vessels and crafts are unloaded at this point. Sea waves and river water batter the structure, which has caved in. “Safety of the harbour, which is exposed to erosion, is at stake,” said an official.

“The jetty is acting as a protective barrier to the harbour area. With further collapse of the jetty, the fish auction hall of the harbour is left endangered as erosion is now likely to take a toll on it,” said Paradip assistant fisheries officer Pradip Kumar Bhuyan.

District fisheries officer Gyan Ranjan Samal attributed it to the failure on part of engineering wing of the state fisheries department.

“After the November 16 cave-in incident, engineering wing of the fisheries department had been appraised of the threat to the harbour several times. But, rebuilding of the damaged jetty has not been taken up since past nine months. Finally, as volumes of floodwater gushed into the Mahanadi tail end, the partly damaged jetty failed to withstand its velocity and caved in,” Samal said.

Now, the northern portion of the harbour has become susceptible to erosion, the official said. Executive engineer of the fisheries engineering division Nalinikanta Padhee said: “The underwater bed materials have got eroded, resulting in the cave-in of the structure. The department is rebuilding the fish-landing jetty on a priority basis. Following the damage to the jetty, the fisheries harbour has been exposed to erosion.”

An Rs 2.46 crore worth Nabard-funded project has been submitted to the high-power committee of the state government for renovation of the Paradip harbour’s jetty. The project is being implemented under the Rural Infrastructure Development Funds. The Union government-owned Central Institute of Coastal Engineering for Fishery, Bangalore, and the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, would provide technical expertise to the project, Padhee said.