Officials of the water resources department inspect the Pentha coast, the proposed site of geo-synthetic tube seawall project. Telegraph picture

Paradip, Oct. 22: Residents of over a dozen villages near the Pentha coast in Rajnagar heaved a sigh of relief with the forest department’s planning to install the state’s first geo-synthetic tube seawall to arrest erosion.

A high-level expert team, headed by principal secretary of the water resources department Pradeep Jena, inspected the project site yesterday. Emphasis was laid on expeditious resumption of the project. The damage caused to the shoreline by Hudhud was also assessed. Local MLA Anshuman Mohanty accompanied the team, said executive engineer of the saline embankment division Jugal Kishore Tripathy.

The seawall construction along the Pentha coast is set to start from the first week of November. The deadline for completion of the Rs 33-crore project is June 2015.

Earlier, the department had to halt the seawall construction due to legal issues.

A Pune-based private firm that has been awarded the project contract by way global tender bidding is gearing up to start work. The seawall project forms the part of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Programme and is funded by the World Bank. The project is being implemented under technical expertise and guidance of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai, to protect the vulnerable from the onslaught of the crawling sea.

The department is also contemplating to bring up seawall at Satabhaya, which is undergoing severe sea erosion. A project worth Rs 1 crore is being planned for the proposed protective embankment. As the said area comes under forest and coastal regulation zone, required environmental clearance will also be sought for, said the official.

Marauding sea waves have been constantly battering the Pentha coast in Kendrapara district, prompting the state government to install the geo-synthetic buffer on the embankment. Following the impact of Hudhud on October 12, the coastal embankment at Pentha was further damaged by tidal waves.

The seawall proposal was mooted in 2008. However, because of many factors, it got delayed. The project had begun in summer under the technical supervision of engineers deputed by the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project and coastal embankment division of the state government. But, work stopped after the forest department had raised objection on the ground of forest and wildlife clearance.