Paradip, Jan. 3: Construction of the state’s first geo-synthetic tube seawall project to tame the marauding sea has started here, much to relief of settlers of seaside human settlements in Kendrapara district.
The project is being commissioned under the World Bank-funded Integrated Coastal Zone Management Programme to protect vulnerable villages from sea erosion in Rajnagar block of the district.
“The proposal for geo-synthetic tube seawall was mooted in 2008. However, its implementation got delayed for various reasons that were beyond our control. Work has now begun under the technical supervision of engineers deputed by the programme officials and coastal embankment division of the state government,” said executive engineer, coastal Embankment division, Jugal Kishore Tripathy.
A Pune-based firm has been awarded contract for the project. The Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, has extended technical support to the project. We expect the work to be completed by March 2015, he added.
The foundation of state’s first such project was laid down by chief minister Naveen Patnaik in 2008. However, technical modification of the project plan and delay in floating of a global tender have subsequently delayed the project’s implementation. It has also led to cost escalation of the project.
The IIT, Chennai, was already accorded a go-ahead for the sea-erosion-control project after wide-ranging scientific and morphological study of the vulnerable seacoast.
The geo-tube seawall barrier embankment’s height would run up to 7.4 metre. Tidal surge rises up to 5 metre during cyclonic storm. Thus, the seawall would be able to withstand the ingress of tidal waves. The length of the embankment would be 675 metre. The plinth of the seawall would be of three-metre depth.
The geosynthetic tube will withstand the impact the ultra-violet ray and tidal velocity. According to the technical plans, geo-tubes made up of high-grade rexin and filled with sand would be put in place at the erosion-hit Pentha embankment. The sand filled rexin bags would act as protective barrier against tidal waves. It would absorb the tidal ingress, salinity contents and sodium chloride contents in seawater and would stop the erosion of embankment, said Tripathy.
The decision to erect a geo-tube to arrest sea erosion was taken on the basis of the findings of the IIT, Chennai. Oceanographic experts deputed by the IIT, Chennai, had studied, among other things, the beach profile, moisture contents of sandy particles, morphology of the eroded beach, intensity, frequency and velocity of the waves,” he said.
