Port Blair, April 24: The Member of Parliament, Shri. Kuldeep Rai Sharma has requested the Lt. Governor, A&N Islands to establish a Fisheries College of International Standard in the Islands so that the youths of Andaman & Nicobar are benefitted.

In a letter addressed to the Lt. Governor, the Member of Parliament said that Andaman & Nicobar Islands are situated right at the middle of Bay of Bengal, which is a gold mine for fisheries. Unfortunately we are unable to tap the immense potential of fisheries till date, mostly because of lack of trained manpower and technical expertise.

There is an urgent need to establish a Fisheries College of International Standard in Andaman & Nicobar Islands so that Island youths as well as researchers from India and neighboring countries can get a professional degree from Andaman and also get themselves trained in the field of Fisheries.

The Member of Parliament pointed that as per a rough estimate there is about 1.47 Lakh MT tonnes of fishes in Andaman Sea but we are able to extract only 32,000 MT annually. Once a Fisheries College is established, the trained man power will be able to carry out deep sea fishing professionally and export them to other countries.

He added that fish export is a multi-million dollar business in International level and Andaman & Nicobar Islands being situated close to South East Countries, there is a huge potential for Fisheries related business. Once the International connectivity between Port Blair and South East Countries is established, Fisheries can become a major export business for Andaman & Nicobar Islands.