Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, people involved in the sail vessel business, which is dwindling in the coastal town, want their demands to be heard by politicians.

Among their demands are maintenance of the dry dock in the old harbour, and a slipway to carry out repairs of their vessels.

The sail vessels, which used to take edibles and general cargo to Colombo and other locations in large volumes, have lost their business to larger vessels calling on the port, mainly feeder vessels plying to Colombo.

As the traffic to Colombo has been hit, they now rely on traffic to Maldives mostly, says S. Lasington Fernando, secretary, Coastal Mechanised Sail Vessel Owners’ Association. As a result, while about 40 vessels were sailing a few years ago, only 25 are left. Around 5,000 workers are directly employed, he says.

Currently, these vessels have to be taken to Mangaluru to perform repairs, which entails shelling out huge sums of money up to ₹3 lakh and loss of time, says Mr. Lasington. Private vendors providing the service in Thoothukudi are expensive, he adds.

In Maldives, the vessels now have to wait several days before berthing. “An exclusive berth should be created for wooden vessels at Maldives,” says Princeton Fernando, president of the association.

In order to provide telecommunication services in the high seas, satellite phones launched by the BSNL last year should be equipped with international roaming facility and should be given at a subsidised rate, he says.

They also seek Automatic Identification System, used to provide data on position, course and speed, to be given at subsidised rates.