The much–hyped geo synthetic seawall construction work, which was going on at the Pethna coast for over some years, was completed recently.
The project was constructed under World Bank-funded Integrated Coastal Zone Management Programme (ICZMP) to protect the vulnerable villages from sea erosion in Rajnagar block.
Notably, the foundation stone of the project had been laid down by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on January 30, 2009 .The 32.95-crore seawall project was designed by IIT Chennai technical experts. It would protect the life and property of 41,222 persons of 56 villages under Rajnagar block who are facing erosion threat from a marching sea near their habitations.
The wall construction had started in 2012-13 and was earlier scheduled to be completed in 2014. But due to some technical problems, its work moved at a snail’s pace. The wall is of 505 meters long, whereas its height and width are 8 meters and 24 meters respectively.
Pune-based Garware Wall Ropes limited was entrusted to construct the wall. While 75 per cent of the project cost was provided by the World Bank, 15 per cent of the project’s cost was funded by the Central Government and 10 per cent by the State Water Resources Department.
Each geo synthetic tube’s length is 60 feet and its width is 10 feet long. Sand-water mixture (commonly a slurry) is filled on the typical fabric geo tube with the help of machine pumping for applying pressure. When the slurry is filled, the water comes out from the geo tube and only sand remains in the tube. A filled sand geo tube weight is 400 tonnes. As many as 234 geo tubes have been laid in Pentha sea beach for the construction of wall, stated Aul Saline embankment Executive Engineer Purna Chandra Rath.
According to Rath, the project work was earlier delayed as the design of the project was revised after the Phailin as erosion occurred in the beach. As per the revised design, the length of the sea wall is 505 meters. Earlier it was decided to construct the sea wall with 9 mm diameter rope, but it was later revised too.