The Hindu Business Line : Ministry mulls marine institute in Kanyakumari

THE Ministry of Environment and Forests proposes to establish a `National Institute of Coastal and Marine Diversity' at Kanyakumari, at a cost of Rs 20 crore.

Announcing this at a press conference here, the Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Mr T.R. Baalu, said the Ministry had requested the Tamil Nadu Government to grant 20 hectares of land for setting up the institute.

Also, the National Biodiversity Authority has been set up, with headquarters at Chennai, the Minister said.

Mr Baalu observed that Tamil Nadu had been slow in implementing the Rs 491-crore project for cleaning up the waterways in Chennai, such as the Buckingham canal, Cooum, Otteri nallah, and the Mambalam canal.

He said the project, fully funded by the Central Government, was scheduled to be completed by September, but only about 25 per cent of the work has been achieved so far.

The Minister said that the Rs 4,000-crore `National Rivers Conservation Project' had a heavy Tamil Nadu bias in it.

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