Manglore : The concept of off-shore floating harbours appears to be evolving as experts in the field have mooted such a facility off the shores of Mangalore, which, besides housing a host of activities including tourism, could help fishermen get a larger catch.

To be deliberated in depth at an international conference on water resources, coastal and ocean engineering slated for March 2015, the concept was discussed in its preliminary stage at a meeting held here on Tuesday at the office of the Deputy Commissioner.

Convened at the insistence of B.N. Karkera, a reactor engineer and an adjunct faculty of National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, the meeting was attended by Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim, New Mangalore Port Trust Chairman P.C. Parida, Senior Scientist at Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute Prabhibha Rohit, professor of Aquatic Biology at Fisheries College Shiva Kumar, Coastal Karnataka Fishermen Action Committee president Lokanath Bolar and others.

Prof. Karkera and Dr. Prathibha Rohit made presentations on the concept and said the multi-purpose off-shore harbour would be located at a depth of 50 fathoms, a sailing distance of about three hours from the Mangalore shore.

The harbour would have sea-wave immunity by remaining about 4.5m above the sea level; luxury cruise amenities on board for land-like living; marine-industrial infrastructure for storing, processing and packaging marine products; connectivity through air and sea for humans and material; power supply through nuclear power plants; fresh water supply through hybrid reverse osmosis technology and capacity to harbour a few thousand fishing vessels, among other things.

While fishermen could get more catch by shifting to the off-shore harbour, coastline pollution through fishing vessels could be avoided by this concept, Prof. Karkera said. The cost of operation for fishing vessels too would come down, he said.

However, many questions regarding the social need and feasibility of the project did not get adequate reply and the experts said all those would be evolved in the coming days.

While Dr. Shiva Kumar sought to know the social need and cost of the project and whether coastline was not available to build harbours, Mr. Parida said the concept was welcome. But a sprawling fishing harbour to house at least 1,000 vessels could be built at a cost of Rs. 200 crore in a place like Hangarkatte in Udupi district, he said.

Though the fishermen would be happy if the proposal materialises, Mr. Bolar was concerned about the cost as governments were unable to spend even Rs. 10 crore to upgrade existing fishing harbours.

Mr. Ibrahim asked the experts to circulate the details among stakeholders for detailed discussion before proceeding further.