Making its presence felt in the deep sea fishing boat building segment, the Cochin Shipyard has started building tuna long liner cum gillnetter fishing vessels. The first batch of these vessels, designed and built by Cochin Shipyard for fishermen in Tamil Nadu, was flagged off by TN Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy through a video conference the other day.

The new fishing boats are sturdy and ideal for three-week-long fishing expeditions. Though the boats have been built under the Union Government's Blue Revolution scheme, with a 50 per cent subsidy from the Centre and 30 per cent subsidy from the Tamil Nadu Government, the shipyard is ready to take up commercial production, Shipyard spokesperson V Kala told Express.

"Though the cost exceeds `1 crore now, high volume of production will bring down the cost and it will be affordable. These vessels are designed and built with modern communication equipment and advanced net hauling and liner winches. The other facilities include galleys, bio-toilet, refrigerated seawater system and stainless steel PUF insulated Fish Hold to preserve the fish catch," she said.

The Shipyard is building 16 tuna longliner and gillnetting fishing vessels under the diversification scheme of trawling fishing boats into deep sea fishing boats. Tamil Nadu Fisheries Additional Director Johny Tom, MPEDA Chairman K S Srinivas and Shipyard chairman Madhu S Nair were present on the occasion.