Bhubaneswar: Odisha achieved 17 percent growth in fish production and 18 percent in sea food exports in the financial year 2016-17.

Reviewing the work performance of Fisheries & Animal Resources Development department at a meeting on Tuesday, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi directed the officials to upgrade the fishing ports with more facilities.

As Dhamra is the most advanced port for fishing in entire coastal Odisha, Padhi asked the officials to install Distress Alert Transmitter (DAT) gadgets in all the fishing boats.

As per the data available with the department, total 22,289 boats have been registered in Odisha so far. Another 1,620 boats were registered by September this year. The boat owners have been asked to install the DAT gadgets in their boats.

On the other hand, OMFED has been allotted 51 acre for setting up another dairy plant in Barang Tehsil, on city's outskirts. However, the government will think about alternative as nobody has taken part in the tender process for construction of the dairy project.