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Navy turns
out 1,000 fiberglass boats for fishermen affected |
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The
Sri Lanka Navy has already commenced manufacturing 1,000
fiberglass boats in keeping with the government's Rs 100
million project to provide boats to fishermen who were
affected by the Tsunami.
Navy Commander Admiral Daya Sandagiri told the Daily News
yesterday that in order to help affected fisher families
back to normal as early as possible the Navy is planning to
build these boats within a month at its Welisara plant and
at the Trincomalee and Galle dockyards.
"The initial process of manufacturing moulds at Welisara
takes at least two weeks and the rest will be completed
without any delay in the two harbours. The manufacturing of
these 17 ft and 27 ft fibre glass boats will be done without
any labour cost," Admiral Sandagiri said.
He said that in the meantime the Navy will repair a large
number of damaged boats which require minor repairs and give
them to the owners immediately.
Meanwhile, an official of the Fisheries Ministry said that
nearly 30,000 boats and ten fisheries harbours have been
affected by the tidal waves and steps are being taken with
private sector participation to rebuild the damaged boats.
"The
CEYNOR Foundation has already started repairing the boats.
We will import machinery and equipment that might be needed
for these repairs.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has donated
Rs.60 million to rebuild boats. Minister of fisheries
Chandrasena Wijesinghe has instructed officials to rebuild
100 boats in Kokilai immediately, he said.
The official said that the estimated losses incurred to the
fisheries harbours is about Rs 1,700 million. "We have
started reconstructing harbours too with the help of the
private sector.
The Beruwela harbour has already started operations.
Construction work on the Galle harbour is now under way.
Nearly 400 boats are now being used in fishing since the
disaster," he said. |
           
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