Fisherfolk and environmental activists have urged the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and the Tamil Nadu Maritime Board to cancel the public hearing for the proposed Cuddalore port expansion scheduled on July 9, 2026.

Environmentalists alleged that the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) study for the project appears flawed and overlooks several factual issues that could affect the livelihood of fishermen and the local residents.

According to K.S. Gajendran, State secretary of the Tamil Nadu Meenavar Peravai, “The move to expand a private port while Cuddalore still lacks a modern fishing harbour will aggravate existing livelihood issues of fishermen. The proposed port expansion will result in increased vehicular movement, and dredging operations could displace fish stocks, forcing traditional fishers to venture deeper and incur higher costs.”

The discharge of effluents from industries in the SIPCOT industrial estate in Cuddalore had already affected marine resources, and that the port expansion would further damage fish breeding grounds and reduce fish stocks. The coastal communities are already facing multiple pressures, and the project should be immediately abandoned to protect livelihood of fisherfolk and the coastal ecosystem.

According to a spokesperson of SIPCOT Area Community Environmental Monitors (SACEM), an environmental watchdog, the port expansion being planned under a 40-year-public-private-partnership agreement with the private operator seeking to enhance the port’s capacity from 5.68 Million Tonnes Per Annum to 11.48 Million Tonnes Per Annum, besides shipbuilding and ship repair facilities.

A new shipyard and ship-repair facility has been proposed within Coastal Regulation Zone-III (No Development Zone) and such major infrastructure cannot be permitted without clearances.

The SACEM pointed out that the baseline ecological study as insufficient. The entire flora and fauna field survey was conducted only in September 2025, and the EIA itself admits that quantitative assessments of faunal populations were not undertaken.

The public hearing scheduled for July 9 should be cancelled. The project should be placed under moratorium until an independent expert committee comprising representatives from Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, the Coastal Zone Management Authority (CZMA), the Department of Fisheries conduct a fresh comprehensive review, SACEM said.