The conventional seawall of Chellanam village in Kerala failed to check sea ingress which resulted in massive ruin and destruction. Now, due to the tetrapod-based seawall, residents of the coastal village vouch that even those stretches that were most vulnerable to sea erosion have remained by and large safe.
About tetrapod-based seawall project
- The construction of the tetrapod-based seawall forms the foundation of the Rs. 344 crore coastal conservation project being implemented by the Kerala government in Chellanam.
- The six networks of groynes being erected along the Chellanam Bazar area, which used to face the wrath of the sea in the past, are also part of the project.
- In the first phase, the wall is being constructed in a little over seven-km stretch between Chellanam harbour and Puthanthodu.
- The project was launched on the basis of a study conducted by the Chennai-based National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) while the work is being supervised by the Anti-Sea Erosion Project Management unit of the Irrigation department.
- Tetrapods are being set upon a 2.5-metre foundation of granite and at a height of 6.1-metre from sea level as per the norms set by the NCCR. A three-metre-wide walkway is being readied over the tetrapod seawall along a stretch of 6.6-km in the first phase.
(Sources: The Hindu)
