Visakhapatnam: National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) scientists said they were hopeful of submitting the report regarding their study into finding short and long term solutions to tackle Vizag’s beach erosion as per schedule. The NIOT scientists held a meeting at the GVMC office here on Tuesday. The state government, in February, appointed a high-level special committee with NIOT as the nodal agency and Vizag port chairman M.T. Krishna Babu as the chairman to study the beach erosion and suggest both short and long term measures.
The NIOT scientists made several field visits and collected secondary data of tides, waves and its parameters, beach sediment movement along the shore. VPT chairman M.T. Krishna Babu, who took part in the meeting, had asked the NIOT scientists to submit an interim report suggesting short term measures by this month and the long term measures by July 15.
He added that locals and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu were worried about the recent incidents of beach erosion and the state government had given top priority to find solutions to tackle the problem. District collector N. Yuvaraj, who also participated in the meeting, hoped that NIOT will bring out a report that will put an end to the beach erosion problem.
It is the first ever scientific study taken up by the state government involving various agencies after the beach road faced erosion continuously for two years, in 2013 and 2014. Parts of the beach road caved in due to the sea surge which had panicked the beach visitors and also those living in the apartments beside it.
“We have discussed various issues about the Vizag’s beach erosion and also gave a update to the other committee members on the progress of our study,” Dr Sivakolundu of NIOT, Chennai, told this newspaper. Representatives of IIT-Chennai, and National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) also took part in the meeting.
