Mangalore: Tourism is in for a boost with a year end completion deadline for a new jetty with passenger-friendly amenities for berthing tourist boats that will ply between Malpe and St. Mary’s Island. The cost? An estimated Rs. 2.26 crore. The jetty is coming up on two acres of land to the west of the Malpe fisheries harbour.
The new jetty will provide berthing facilities to two big passenger boats and one small passenger boat. Two big boats will be able to berth at a time with provision for landing platforms at end spans. Passengers will be able to mount and dismount from a boat simultaneously.
The jetty will be 30 m long and 10 m wide. The Nirmiti Kendra has taken up the construction of this jetty.The current jetty is small, with berthing facility for only one boat. The jetty is such that tourists find it difficult to board the boats or get off them. Boats from this jetty operate from mid-September to mid-May.
Located about six km off the Malpe coast here, St. Mary’s Island is a sought-after tourist spot. The island houses columnar basaltic rock formation, and was declared a national geological monument by the Geological Survey of India in November, 1979.
Second phase
A sum of Rs. 1 crore has been sanctioned for the second phase work of the new jetty under the Coastal Tourism Circuit Development Project. Under the second phase, restaurants and shops for tourists would be constructed near the jetty.
Three pergolas, a service road, a walkway, and a security kiosk at the entrance of the jetty would be constructed. Trees too would be planted to give the entire area a green cover. There will be a direct road from Malpe beach to thee jetty. Tourists will not have to enter the Malpe fisheries harbour as is the case now.
However the construction of a jetty at St. Mary’s Island, which should have been taken up along with this jetty, is stuck. “Though a proposal of Rs. 2 crore for construction of a jetty at St. Mary’s Island was sent to the Tourism Department, it has not been sanctioned,” Mr Kumar said.
