Odisha Prepares Blueprint For Protection Of Coast From Tidal Surge

Bhubaneswar: Following the massive tidal surge which inundated vast areas along the north coastal belt during landfall of very severe cyclonic storm Yaas, the Odisha government has decided to formulate a long-term plan to protect its coast.

Engineer-in-chief, Water Resources, Jyotirmay Rath informed mediapersons on Saturday that a detailed project report (DPR) is being prepared under the supervision of Water Resources Department for the first-phase construction of a 380 km saline embankment at a projected cost of Rs 1944 crore.

“The construction of saline embankment will be done by packing stones along the coast. To prevent these stones from getting separated during high tide, they will be covered with iron nets. Apart from this, to prevent strong onshore wind speed, there will be massive plantations along the embankments,” Rath added.

He said after the first phase, construction of saline embankment of 1680 km will be taken up in subsequent phases at a projected cost of Rs 6000 to Rs 7000 crore.

Rath pointed out that the 52 km saline embankment in Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Ganjam districts, constructed between 2013 and 2016 at a cost of Rs 135 crore, is still intact.