The surge of the sea continued for the third day on Friday with it eroding the land mass under the footpath on the Beach Road in the stretch adjacent to Kursura Submarine Museum.
With a stream of curious visitors thronging the area, the footpath from Kursura submarine museum to the police guest house on the side of the beach was cordoned off in the evening as the precarious footpath might cave in. Vehicular traffic was allowed on the road at night.
A high tide was witnessed by late evening raising fears of further erosion and weakening of the footpath.
District Collector S. Solomon Arokia Raj, Police Commissioner B. Shivadhar Reddy, Municipal Commissioner M.V. Satyanarayana and VUDA Vice-Chairman N. Yuvaraj visited the area on the beach that was progressively being eroded on Friday evening.
“It is quite dangerous to walk on the footpath as its support got eroded from underneath,” Mr. Satyanarayana said after the visit.
As of now the chief engineers of Visakhapatnam Port Trust, Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) and VUDA have been assigned the task of taking up immediate measures to contain the erosion in consultation with oceanography experts from Andhra University.
“They will take up immediately the task of riveting and dumping boulders to tackle the erosion,” the Commissioner said. The work would begin on Saturday. Permanent measures would be taken up after reports were submitted by experts.
It has already been decided to carry out studies by a team of engineers of GVMC and VUDA under the leadership of Andhra University Geophysics and Oceanography K. Nageswara Rao.
