A geo-tube seawall installed to combat sea erosion caught fire at the Pentha beach in the Rajnagar area in Kendrapada district on Sunday.
Locals, who were roaming at the sea beach in the morning, spotted the fire spreading to the seawall. They immediately informed Fire Services personnel while taking an initiative to control the flame. Receiving information, a fire tender was pressed into service to douse the flame.
Sources said that around a 200-metre stretch of the 506 metre-long geo-tube wall was gutted in fire.
However, the cause behind the fire was yet to be ascertained.
Notably, the geo-tune wall is the State’s first sea erosion control project under the World Bank-funded Integrated Coastal Zone Management Programme. It was installed at an estimated Rs 33 crore to withstand the ingress of tidal waves.