Five big fisheries projects worth Rs4.6b proposed for merged areas

PESHAWAR: As many as five huge projects worth Rs4.6 billion have been proposed by the Fisheries Department under the 10 years uplift plan for the tribal districts.

An official of Directorate of Fisheries of merged areas said on Sunday that under the 10-year uplift plan, the government would establish and strengthen fisheries setup in merged tribal districts with an estimated cost of Rs1000 million.

Under this project, the focus would be on to setting up offices of the Fisheries Department and residential buildings and houses for the staff in all tribal districts for effective supervision, management, conservation and breeding programs of the aquatic resources.

The other mega project is related to the establishment of cold and warm water fish seeds production and training centres besides setting up of crap and trout hatcheries with an estimated cost of Rs2000 million.

Training centres would be established to enhance the capacity of the staff and farmers associated with fish farming to enhance overall fish production.

The department has proposed another mega project for the rehabilitation of existing fish farms and hatcheries with an estimated cost of Rs100 million.

Under this scheme, all the closed fish farms would be reopened and hatcheries destroyed during unrest in the past would be reconstructed.

The government will launch a mega scheme for development of cold chain and fish storage centres through a public-private partnership with an estimated cost of Rs500 million for sustainable conservation and breeding of the aquatic resource at large scale.

The climate of merged areas are ideal for crap, trout, masher and other fish farming and private sector is being involved to increase fish production by starting new projects to tap this rich potential.

Moreover, six mega projects have been proposed for ADP 2019-20 including strengthening of fisheries department in merged areas costing Rs50 million, development of trout fisheries costing Rs20 million and completion of remaining work of farm fisheries in Khyber district costing Rs25 million and Bannu costing Rs25 million to promote fish farming.

The government will rehabilitate and improve fisheries facilities in tribal districts with an estimated cost of Rs20 million besides the establishment of a training centre in Mohmand district with an estimated allocation of Rs20 million.

As many as Rs20 million each would be spent on the development of trout fish farming and rehabilitation besides improvement of fisheries facilities in all tribal districts.

Asked about the progress of three new projects in ADP 2018-19, he said PC-I of development of trout fishing farming in tribal districts costing Rs40 million has been completed and sent to the competent forum for approval.