The soil-test team on Nayachar. (Jahangir Badsa)

Nayachar, Sept. 12: A Geological Survey team that went to study the feasibility of Nayachar as a chemical hub destination fled back to the mainland today after a tsunami alert was sounded.

As the news of the quake in Indonesia spread and warnings of a tsunami on the Indian coast in three hours flashed on television channels, officials of the commerce and industries department went into a tizzy in Calcutta.

In Bengal, an alert was issued for the four coastal districts — North and South 24-Parganas and East and West Midnapore.

The six-member Geological Survey team led by deputy director-general (operations) Biplab Mukherjee could not be reached on the phone. They were outside the network.

By the time Writers’ Buildings got in touch with the East Midnapore superintendent of police, the soil-test team, however, had set sail from the island, about 3km from the Haldia industrial hub.

The team that was supposed to stay the night on the island reached Diamond Harbour in the evening, Haldia additional superintendent of police Tanmoy Roychowdhury said.

In Nayachar, Mukherjee said samples would be collected to examine the nature of the soil. “We will test the soil strength and its load-bearing capacity. We will also find out whether the island can be fenced off with a guard wall. The survey will take three to four months.”

The team reached Nayachar in a motorised boat around 1.30pm. Public health engineering department officials also went to collect water samples.

Mukherjee and his colleagues travelled about 4km on rickshaw vans from the western to the eastern side of the island, where there is heavy erosion every year.

As the vans rolled on bumpy fields and soft soil amid a mild drizzle, the officials picked up fistfuls of earth. However, they did not collect any sample for laboratory tests today.

On reaching the eastern part of the island, called Purbapara, Mukherjee spoke to the local fisherfolk about their experience of the erosion.

Shahid Sardar, 55, who migrated to Nayachar from South 24-Parganas 20 years ago, said the river swallows 150 to 200 feet of the island every year. “Large parts of the east get flooded during high tide.”