KOCHI: Excise Minister K Babu has said that the government would take steps to dredge and remove the sand wall, which has been posing threat to the fishermen at Munambam estuary. A decision in this regard was taken during a meeting held under Union Minister of State K V Thomas to discuss the issue of sand wall at Munambam. The meeting was organised in the backdrop of frequent accidents where fishing boats hit the sand wall. The operations of the harbour is being done by the Munambam Fishing Harbour Management Society. However, the society does not have the funds for dredging the estuary. In this backdrop, the meeting decided to ask for Central clearance in a report prepared by the Harbour Engineering Department. Measures will also be taken to ensure 50 percentage union funding for the project. As per the report, an amount of Rs. 112 lakh has been kept for dredging at Munambam. In addition to these, funds will be made available from the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, Babu said.The hydrographic survey for assessing the location and depth of the sand wall is currently going on at Munambam. Once the survey is completed, the wall will be removed through dredging. A decision has also been made at the meeting to assign the Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS) for a detailed study at Munambam using the funds of the management society. K P Dhanapalan MP and S Sarma MLA also attended the meeting.
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