Underwater boat garage service commences in Mangaluru

Team Udayavani, Jan 11, 2021, 11:30 AM IST

Mangaluru: An underwater garage service for repairing fishing boats in the water has commenced operation in the city here. This is the first such garage in coastal Karnataka.

The underwater garage is owned by a veteran of the fishing industry Rajaratna Sanil.

Boats are usually lifted from the water and repaired as it is not easy to repair them while they are in the water. However, in an underwater garage, water-based repair technology and trained staff do the job while the boat is floating in the water.

It is common for shells and seaweeds to whirl up in the metal propeller of the boats and cause the boats to slow down and guzzle too much of diesel. In an underwater garage, technicians go underwater as scuba divers do and solve such problems.

Sanil has acquired trained in such underwater boat repairing and has already trained and hired three men while four more are undergoing training.

It costs more than Rs 1 lakh to repair big boats after lifting them out of water. So boat owners get their boats serviced once a year or once in two years. Now that our underwater service is available, there won’t be any need to ​​lift and repair boats and it is also cheap. Boats can be made to last longer by regular maintenance. Rs 20 to 30 thousand is being charged to clean the base of the boat. We are receiving a lot of demand and will soon be extending our service to Malpe and other ports.