Visakhapatnam Port Trust has commenced work on beach nourishment by engaging Dredging Corporation of India for a month-long project to fill eroded beaches in Visakhapatnam.
“The project will cost ₹16 crore for which a DCI dredger will lay the pipeline in the sea to collect and dump an estimated 2.5 lakh cubic metres of sand in vulnerable areas,” Visakhapatnam Port Trust Chairman M.T. Krishna Babu told The Hindu on Saturday.
Work on pipeline-laying has started. On the recommendation of Deltares, a Netherlands-based independent institute specialising in research in water and sub-surface, VPT has been undertaking beach nourishment by collecting and dumping sand by laying a pipeline for effective utilisation of sand since last year. Earlier, it used to adopt rainbow method.
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High-power panel
Following severe beach erosion leading to the sea’s forward march breaking the side walls at the INS Kursura Submarine and caving in of road near the fishing harbour and other places, a high-power committee led by Mr. Krishna Babu was set up by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Deltares experts suggested that instead of rainbow method of beach nourishment and exploring alternatives geo-synthetic mesh and underwater dykes, collecting sea sand and dumping it at eroded beaches was most effective.
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In some foreign countries, trucks are engaged to collect sand and use it for beach nourishment.
“However, we found that for us pipeline method is cost-effective and environment-friendly. The sand we collect and use it for filling will be equivalent to 15,000 to 20,000 truck loads of sand,” Mr. Krishna Babu said.
Since the inauguration of outer harbour in 1979, VPT has been carrying out beach nourishment project. Experts have opined that fast changing beach morphology due to concrete jungle culture has led to severe beach erosion all along Visakhapatnam and Bheemunipatnam coastline.