Paradip, Sept. 19: The long wait for the construction of state’s first geo-tube sea wall project under the World Bank-funded Integrated Coastal Zone Management Programme, in Kendrapara district will be over shortly.
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai, has accorded go-ahead to the much-awaited sea-erosion-control project after its experts had conducted extensive scientific and morphological study of the vulnerable coast.
“It has submitted its findings in a comprehensive report. The premier institute has also approved the technical design and plan of the anti-sea-erosion project at Pentha in Rajnagar tehsil.
Tender for the Rs 22-crore project is being invited. We are hopeful that the project work will start this winter,” said Jugal Kishore Tripathy, executive engineer, saline embankment division.
The sea wall, where geo-tube barrier will be installed, would be for an estimated cost Rs 22 crore. The embankment height would be 7.4-metre. The tidal surge rises up to 5 metre during cyclonic storm.
Thus, it can withstand the ingress of tidal waves. The length of the embankment will be 675 metre instead of 700 metre as it was planned earlier, Tripathy said.
IIT experts had conducted comprehensive scientific study of the erosion-prone coast for the installation of geo-tube sea wall to save a cluster of highly threatened hamlets in the district.
Of the 480km-long coastline in the state, 39.3km is undergoing various degree of sea erosion. The Pentha coast set for geo-synthetic tube refurbishment comes under high erosion zone, said an official.
