₹25.36-crore project to provide 15,000 fishing vessels with NAVIC equipment

The State government has approved a project to equip fishermen with NAVIC satellite navigation sets and satellite phones to ensure their safety at sea.

The State Cabinet which met here on Tuesday ratified the ₹25.36-crore project to provide 15,000 fishing vessels with NAVIC equipment. With a coverage of 1,500 km from the coast, the satellite navigation system will warn fishers about weather events and provide information about international boundaries and potential fishing zones. Designed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and manufactured by Keltron, the NAVIC sets are estimated to cost ₹15.93 crore.

Another 1,000 deep sea fishermen will be equipped with satellite phones at an estimated cost of ₹9.43 crore for communication at sea. BSNL is providing the phones at a cost of ₹94,261 each. The beneficiary share has been fixed at ₹1,500. The entire cost of the project will be mobilised from the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund for the victims of Cyclone Ockhi.

Life jackets

The Cabinet approved a ₹6.1-crore project to equip 40,000 fishermen with life jackets. It also ratified a package of ₹1.78 crore as compensation for fishermen who lost their fishing equipment in Cyclone Ockhi.

The meeting decided to set up the Kerala Coconut Development Council to improve the acreage and production of the crop in the State. The council headed by the Agriculture Minister will seek to extend the area under coconut cultivation from 7.81 lakh to 9.25 lakh hectares, replace diseased and old trees with saplings of high-yielding varieties and boost the productivity to 8,500 per hectare. It will also promote the manufacture of value-added products from coconut.