THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Hundreds of fishermen operating from Muthalapozhi are staring at another dangerous monsoon season with the harbour engineering department’s repeated tender for emergency dredging activity attracting overbudget bids.
The delay has now pushed the work into the monsoon season, when rough sea conditions make dredging impossible, forcing hundreds of fishing vessels to navigate the heavily silted harbour mouth. Recently, two fishing vessels capsized at the harbour, further compounding the situation.
With fishers unable to venture out to sea without taking risk, community representatives and panchayat authorities met the chief minister seeking government intervention to complete the work within 15 days by deploying heavy duty dredgers.
According to official sources, the CM has directed the chief secretary to examine the proposal.
A department official said the Rs 2.20-crore tender that was floated four times in recent months attracted overbudget bids.
“If the work has to be completed within 15 days, a larger capacity dredger will be required and the fishing community is not confident of the present proposal,” said the official.
The official said bidders were quoting nearly 44% above the approved estimate. “Such bids cannot be cleared at the departmental level. We can sanction only up to a 10% variation. Anything beyond that requires government approval,” said the official.
Shincy I, president of Anchuthengu panchayat who was part of the delegation which met the CM, said the delay has severely affected the fishing community. “This should have been completed much earlier. Since no contractor was finalised after four tenders, the authorities should have worked out an alternative. Now, even if a contractor is finalised, dredging cannot be carried out over the next three months because of rough conditions. The sea has already started turning rough and this is peak fishing season,” she said.
She said that moving dredging equipment to the site and transporting the excavated sand would also prove be difficult until sea conditions improve, making any immediate intervention unlikely.
