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Boats brought back from Lanka badly damaged
Out of the six boats belonging to Nagapattinam districts that were handed over by the Sri Lankan government under goodwill gesture in phase II, four boats reached on Friday morning while two boats are yet to reach as their recovery boats developed technical snag and are undergoing repair at Mandapam in Rameswaran.
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Nagapattinam
They are expected to reach Nagapattinam by Saturday evening while the fishermen rue that they have to spend a heavy sum to repair the recovered boats which are in a dilapidated condition. According to the fisheries department officials, 148 boats were seized from Tamil Nadu by the Sri Lankan navy and 42 of them have been released by Sri Lanka among which 15 are from Nagapattinam.
On October 9, three boats were towed from Mandapam in the first phase. In the second phase, six boats from Nagapattinam were handed over and six recovery boats went to Sri Lanka and towed six boats and reached Mandapam on Thursday.
According to the fishermen, all the released boats are in a dilapidated condition, needing repairs. “We will need at least Rs 5 lakh to 10 lakh to bring back the boats to their original condition,” said Ilayaraja, a boat owner. He appealed to the fisheries department for monetary support.
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