Kendrapara (Odisha), Jan 25: To tame the wrath of the sea and to safeguard vulnerable seaside human settlements, construction work of a 17.5 km long stretch seawall project to protect vulnerable seaside human settlements in Odisha’s Kendrapara district is in full swing.
A World Bank team inspected the work recently and expressed satisfaction over the quality and progress of the project work, a district Irrigation official said.
The Rs 42 crore project sanctioned under National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Programme (NCRMP) and funded by World Bank is being implemented in exceedingly vulnerable seaside pockets of Kendrapara district, Executive Engineer, Saline Irrigation Division, Jugal Kishore Tripathy said.
A 14 km long seawall is being erected at Praharajpur Chashisabha area under Rajnagar tehsil while a 3.5 km long seawall is being installed in Sasanpeta gram panchayat.
Almost 90 per cent of construction work has already come to an end. The seawall would be complete in the next two months. These areas were highly susceptible to sea erosion and ingress of tidal waves, the official said.
The protective seawall would shield more than a dozen villages from the fury of the sea, he said.
The seawall is being raised to 20 foot height. The tidal surge rises up to 10-12 feet during cyclonic storms. Thus it can tame the ingress of tidal waves, he said.
A new technology has been applied for the seawall building as the smashing of sea waves is intense in these areas. Galvanized metallic gab ion boxes are being placed inside the seawall embankment structure to reduce the force of wave energy, the official said.
Presently, seaside villages are armed with saline embankment of six feet height which are inadequate, the official said.
Scourge of sea erosion and tidal ingress has threatened several thickly populated human settlements and nearly 22 km stretch shoreline categorized as critically vulnerable patches.
