A high-level team led by acting Country Director and Operations Adviser for World Bank in India Michael Haney, along with senior officials of Integrated Coastal Zone Management Projects (ICZMP) and Water Resources Department on Monday visited the sea erosion prone Pentha village at Rajnagar in order to access the ongoing geo synthetic sea wall.
The wall is the first of its kind in the Sate, now under construction near Pentha beach to ward off sea erosion.
Haney visited the site and inspected the geo synthetic tube laid work and interacted with the sea erosion prone of Pentha villagers. The locals brought to the notice of Haney that they were in a state of panic as they suspect the stability of the geo synthetic tube. They cited that one geo-synthetic tube had ruptured after sand and water filling work was going on three months back. The locals also showed the ruptured tube to Haney.
According to Haney, “I came from World Bank to see the progress of sea wall construction at Pentha. The progress of the sea wall project is good. It was a good opportunity for me to interact with the locals and get their feedbacks and suggestions in the project.”
According to Executive Engineer of Aul Saline Division Jugal Kishore Tripathy, Haney gave a green signal to resume the sea wall project that was stopped since June 16 last.
Tripathy said a decision was taken recently to resume the geo synthetic sea wall work after report came positive from four laboratories about the quality of the materials of the tube. Earlier, a technical team sent the sample of the ruptured tube and its cloth to four laboratories, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Pune for testing its material quality.
Notably, 40 geo tubes having length of 20 metres and height of 7.4 metres each have been placed inside the sea so far. A total of 204 geo tubes are proposed to be fitted in the wall on a 505-metre stretch to stop the sea waves from eroding the coastline.
The authorities are contemplating changing the process of erection of the wall as they are finding it difficult to place stone packing in 120 meter out of the 505-metre stretch geo tube due to high tides. Stainless steel sheet pipes will be used in piling where it will be placed 20 feet below the sea along the 120-meter stretch. Geo tubes will be fitted at the back of these steel piles. Besides, the process of construction of geo tubes with the filling of water and sand will be changed.
Meanwhile, problems are occurring to set up steel sheet piling to check the ingress of tidal wave. But though the steel piling work was started on September 15, it had to be stopped midway as the sea was turbulent due to low pressure. The steel sheets were found floating in the water due to onslaught of tidal wave at the site. Meanwhile, a vibro machine has come to the site to set up steel filing work.
The Pune-based Garware Wall Ropes limited has been entrusted for construction of the project at an estimated cost of Rs32.95 crore.
While 75 per cent of the project cost has been provided by the World Bank, 15 per cent of cost is funded by Central Government and 10 per cent is funded by the State Water Resources Department.