Government to develop aquaculture zones says Collector Pravin Kumar in Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam: The district administration has identified 1,164 hectares to develop aquaculture zones in the district.

The state government in last April has directed the district administration to identify the lands which are suitable for the development of the aquaculture.

According to the government orders, the district administration has identified the lands to develop the aquaculture zones for salt and fresh water prawns in the district.

Collector Pravin Kumar on Saturday convened a district-level meeting with fisheries, agriculture, irrigation, Pollution Control Board, MPEDA, and CMFRI officials and discussed the development of the aquaculture zones.

The Collector directed Joint Director of Fisheries Koteswara Rao to send the proposals to the government as per the district administration recommendations.

According to Collector Pravin Kumar, salt water prawn aquaculture zones would be developed in 782 hectares and fresh water prawn culture zones in 103 hectares.

Another 279 hectares also identified suitable for the aquaculture in the district, he said.

The Collector said that proposals for land regularisation for the zones and infrastructure development around the zones would also be sent to the government for approvals.

Deputy Director of Agriculture A Nageswara Rao, Executive Director Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board Lakshmi Narayana, divisional
engineer of irrigation Krishna Rao, assistant director of Fisheries Lakshmana Rao, scientists from CMFRI and others participated in the discussions and explained the possibilities to develop the
aquaculture zones.