Royapuram fishing harbour, also known as Chennai fishing harbour or Kasimedu fishing harbour, is one of the major fishing grounds for catching fishes and

crustaceans Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean g ...

located at Kasimedu in the

Royapuram Royapuram is a locality in the northern part of the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is best known for its beach, and for Royapuram Railway Station. The station is the first railway station of south India, opening in 1856, and is today ...

area of

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. The harbour is located north of the Chennai Port and is under the administrative control of the Chennai Port Trust. The harbour is also a shipbuilding facility, chiefly building fishing boats. The nearest railway station is the

Royapuram Railway Station Royapuram railway station (station code: RPM) is a railway station at Royapuram, on the Chennai Beach–Walajapet section of the Chennai Suburban Railway network in Chennai, India. It is the second oldest railway station currently operational ...

. The harbour can accommodate 575 fishing boats, and by 2013 the number of boats has gone up to 1,395.

History

The harbour area is primarily a fisherman community area migrated from

Chepauk Chepauk is a locality in Chennai, India. The name Chepauk is popularly used to refer to the M. A. Chidambaram International Cricket Stadium, also known as the Chepauk Stadium. It is also home to the Chepauk Palace, built in the Indo-Saracenic ...

village in 1799 during the rule of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sou ...

. The harbour was constructed in 1975. The fishing harbour is functioning from 1984. It suffered an extensive damage during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The harbour and the market

The breakwater inside the harbour leads up to 300 m into the sea. The draft alongside the

wharf A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths ( mooring locati ...

is 2 m. The harbour has a capacity to handle about 575 fishing craft but over 1,395 boats use the space. Over 600 45-ft boats (each operated by 11 people), 200 30-ft boats (each operated by 4 people) and 300 fibre boats with outboard motors (each operated by 3 to 4 people), in addition to hundreds of

catamarans A Formula 16 beachable catamaran Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...

, use the harbour. Nearly 30,000 people visit the auction hall situated near the harbour every day. Of the daily sales amounting to 200 tonnes, nearly 30 per cent is sent to other States such as

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

and

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Ca ...

and the remaining is provided for local markets. A retail fish market known as the Kasimedu fishing harbour market with 90 stalls is located within the Chennai fishing harbour complex adjacent to the auction shed of the fishing harbour and behind the Office of the Fishing Harbour Management Committee. The market sells a variety of fishes including seer,

pomfret Pomfrets are perciform fishes belonging to the family Bramidae. The family currently includes 20 species across seven genera. Several species are important food sources for humans, especially ''Brama brama'' in South Asia. The earlier form of ...

prawn Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton and ten legs (which is a member of the order decapoda), some of which can be eaten. The term "prawn"Mortenson, Philip B (2010''This is not a weasel: a close look at nature' ...

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachi ...

sardine "Sardine" and "pilchard" are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring family Clupeidae. The term "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century, a folk etymology says it comes from the It ...

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all th ...

, silverbellies, carangids and

mackerel Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment. ...

Expenditure

As of 2018, there are an estimated 1,000 mechanised boats at the fishing harbour. It costs 115,000 for a small 98 to 110 horsepower, 50-feet-long mechanised boat to spend three days at sea. The sum needed for a large boat to stay out for a week at a time is around 300,000.

Damage by tsunami

The harbour was extensively damaged by the

2004 Indian Ocean tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

, especially the 500-m trawler wharf, which can berth nearly 500 mechanised boats. The

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

resulted in the destruction of about 61 trawlers in the harbour, in addition to partly damaging 43 trawlers and causing minor damage to nearly 400 trawlers. The total loss is estimated at about 160-200 million.

Developments

Among its various activities along the coast of India, Ocean Science and Technology for Islands (OSTI) of the

National Institute of Ocean Technology The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) was established in November 1993 as an autonomous society under the Ministry of Earth Sciences in India. NIOT is managed by a Governing Council and is headed by a director. The institute is bas ...

(NIOT) undertakes biofouling studies at the harbour. In December 2011, the Fisheries Department issued work order for a project to improve the facilities at the fishing harbour at a cost of 170 million. The renovation also includes demolition and rebuilding of the auction hall. The work is expected to be completed by 2012. A 2.5-acre land in Kasimedu has been shortlisted along with a 7-acre land in Vaniyanchavadi on

Rajiv Gandhi Salai State Highway 49A (SH-49A) also known as Rajiv Gandhi Salai and Rajiv Gandhi IT Expressway or just IT Expressway is a major road connecting Chennai, Tamil Nadu with Mahabalipuram in Chengalpattu district, Tamil Nadu. It is 45 km long and ...

for a modern fish processing park. The park would initially focus mainly on fish catch by 600 mechanised boats in Chennai. The park is likely to attract large fishing vessels to Chennai to facilitate value addition to their catch. Now Chennai receives fish arrivals through just five or six large fishing vessels. In April 2013, the then Chief Minister

J. Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016) was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 9 February 1989 to 5 December 2 ...

announced that the harbour will be upgraded, including creating additional mooring space, at a cost of 750 million. The development project includes a 300-metre-long wharf along the northern breakwater; a 200-metre-long wharf for fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) boats; extending the northern wharf (existing boat yard) by 140 metres; two 150-metre-long finger jetties; two 200-metre-long finger jetties; new repairing centre; deepening the harbour; and a sanitary complex. The project is intended to benefit 12,000 fishermen directly and 15,000 fishermen and workers indirectly.

References