Mangaluru: When Mangaluru sneezes, Bengaluru catches a cold! This time, it’s ice which is creating the havoc in fish markets in the IT City because there is not enough water in Mangaluru.

The drought has affected ice production drastically impacting ice availability to preserve fish in boats and also during transportation from Mangaluru to Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu. Some factories have been forced to cut ice production, others are on the verge of closure.

“Water is needed to manufacture ice. There is need for a huge amount of water which we are unable to get in a day,” Trawler Fishermen Association president Nithin Kumar told Deccan Chronicle.

The association also owns an ice plant in Mangaluru old port. “Our output was about 2,000 blocks (of 50 kg) per day, which we are now able to produce only in one and a half days,” Nithin said.

Beans Rs 200/kg in Bengaluru

The heat wave and the resultant crop loss have pushed beans price to an all time high of Rs 200 per kilogram on Sunday evening. According to the vegetable vendors at K.R. Market and Yeswantpur, there was no supply since Friday, following crop loss in parts of Kolar, Tumakuru and Chikkaballapur. They pointed out that supply from Tamil Nadu had stopped two weeks ago.