VPA to consult experts to tackle frequent erosion of Vizag beaches

Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnam Port Authority (VPA), which launched the annual beach nourishment project here on Thursday, said it will seek the opinion of technical experts for remedial measures to arrest severe erosion of beaches in and around the City of Destiny.

A committee will be formed soon with experts from VPA, Andhra University, Indian Institute of Technology-Chennai and National Institute of Oceanography (NIO). Of late, the nourishment being taken up by VPA as part of its social responsibility is lasting only six to eight months.

VPA Chairman M Angamuthu, after launching the annual beach nourishment near the INS Kursura Submarine Museum, told Bizz Buzz that they are expecting to excavate 2.1 lakh cubic metres from the ‘Sand Trap’ and refill the eroded beaches through a pipeline by spending Rs19.09 crore.

The nourishment project is done through a dredger belonging to Dredging Corporation of India Limited (DCIL). VPA has awarded a three-year dredging contract to DCIL for an amount of Rs 57.26 crore for three years to pump about 6.3 lakh cubic meters of sand. VPA has majority equity in DCIL-the highest among four major ports owned by the Government of India, which have strategic control over the Visakhapatnam-headquartered company.

Angamuthu said to control the beach erosion and to keep the beauty of the Visakhapatnam coast specially covering the famed RK Beach and INS Submarine Museum intact, the sand activity is being carried out during the past few years with VPA funds.

He said VPA is committed to control the erosion by regularly nourishing the beaches with the sand available in the Sand Trap at the Outer Harbour. “This is a yearly process and much required for retaining and nourishing the RK Beach and also working in collaboration with the State government to protect the pristine beaches of Visakhapatnam,” he stated.

He said to reduce the erosion, DCIL with its state of the art dredger DCI Dredge-21 will dredge the sand material from inside the port area and pump the sand ashore the RK Beach using self-floating pipeline of length of 0.5 km through rainbowing.

Severe erosion of beaches mainly due to concrete jungle phenomena, changing sand morphology and frequent cyclones since Phailin and Hudhud in the Bay of Bengal have been causing frequent problems raising concern among the green activists. Recommendation of some experts to lay seawall at an estimated cost of Rs 150 crore was considered but subsequently dropped due to high exorbitant cost. Later laying geo-synthetic tubes was mooted in 2015.

According to information furnished in Parliament in response to a question, littoral drift occurs in the northerly direction for eight to nine months in a year with waves approaching the coast from the south west. There is southerly littoral drift for three to four months due to nort-east monsoon waves. This variation in the littoral drift results in instability of beaches where man-made structures disrupt the free-sand movement.