As many as 33 of the 81 Indian fishing boats that were released by the Sri Lankan government reached the Tamil Nadu coast Wednesday (18) morning.

The boats, which had been damaged, were repaired and sent back to the Tamil Nadu with a group of 140 fishermen and technicians who arrived to Sri  Lanka on March 15.

They belonged fishermen in Rameswaram, Mandapam, Nagapattinam and Pudukottai.

The task of salvaging and taking back scores of Indian fishing vessels released by the Sri Lankan government began on Monday (16) at Kankesanthurai in Jaffna District.

District Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Mechanised Boat Fishermen Association, B Jesuraja, thanked the state and the central governments for helping them.

"Both the governments were quite benevolent towards us. The Tamil Nadu government has born all the expenses of this salvage trip. We also appeal to governments to help us repatriate other fishing boats held in various fishing jetties in Sri Lanka," he said.
(With inputs from Times of India)