A team of experts have recommended to the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) to construct a dry rubble bund as a temporary measure to check coastal erosion near the Children’s Park at Rama Krishna Beach in Visakhapatnam.
According to a senior official from the Engineering Department of the GVMC, a team of experts from the Engineering Department of the GVMC, Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT) and others had visited the site on Monday, where a part of the park on Beach Road caved in on Sunday.
“We will be submitting a report to the higher-ups, recommending the construction of a dry rubble bund to distribute or reduce the wave energy, before they reach the shores. However, this will be a temporary measure. Unless beach nourishment is done in that area, the problem will prevail. However, it is up to the senior officials to decide whether they want a temporary arrangement or a better idea,” said the official.
The coastal erosion is not new to Visakhapatnam coast. After Cyclone Hudhud that hit the city in the year 2014 and again in the year 2015, the coastal belt from Kursura Submarine to Naval Coastal Coastal Battery was affected due to erosion. After Hudhud, Andhra Pradesh Disaster Recovery Project (APDRP) was sanctioned to the cyclone hit Visakhapatnam district to take up steps to arrest the erosion along the coast.
Coastal erosion
The main idea of the project was to arrest the erosion and come up with a suitable scheme to mitigate coastal erosion and prepare a shoreline management plan. The GVMC had then entrusted the responsibility to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) to a Netherlands-based company. However the project was not taken forward. A senior official of the GVMC said that issue of funds and approval from the Union Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) have been the reasons for the delay in pushing the project forward. Sources in the GVMC said that after the erosion at Children’s Park, the project is likely to move ahead.
