Beach nourishment created a km-long island near RK Beach, the most frequented spot in the city, attracting several people from all walks of life on Thursday.
Morning walkers were baffled to see the unusual phenomenon — an island formed on the beach close to Novotel Varun Beach and Taj Gateway hotels.
“It was an exciting experience for me. First time in my life I gathered courage to walk on the sand surrounded by water for such a long distance,” said P. Nirmala, a seventh standard student of Sri Prakash Vidyaniketan, TPT Colony.
‘Lifetime experience’ “It was a lifetime experience. That’s why I brought my daughter to the island,” said Jayaram, who works in the Police Commissionerate.
Similar phenomenon had occurred in 2006. Beach nourishment, an annual exercise being undertaken by the Visakhapatnam Port for the past 15 years to arrest erosion of beachfront, is taken up during February-March to remove deposits from Sand-Trap of 3-4 km developed between the sunken ship and south breakwater.
The Dredging Corporation of India launched the exercise on February 26 by deploying its newly acquired Dredge-21.
The DCI is nourishing the beach as per the directions of the port following rainbow dredging — pumping out deposits towards RK Beach in a rainbow-shaped jet through a floating pipeline.
The project, this time to excavate two lakh cubic metres, is on the verge of completion.
Policemen — K.A. Raju and R. Ravi Kumar — who were deployed to control curious visitors, said they had been convincing people not to venture into sea due to risk involved in it.
DCI Chairman and Managing Director Capt. D.K. Mohanty told The Hindu that formation of island due to nourishment was a welcome sign.
“We have proved that we can reconstruct the beach. The drift may take turn towards north after sometime. Whenever asked, we are ready to reconstruct the beach on the Kursura Museum side, where part of the road caved-in last month,” he said.
Sea surge Visakhapatnam Port, VUDA, GVMC, and Andhra University, after a joint inspection of beach erosion near the Kursura Museum, had decided to engage experts from Pune-based Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS) and IIT-Madras to finalise an action plan to tackle the challenge of sea surge.
