Scarcity of rocks hit construction of sea walls at Kerala's Vizhinjam 

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It’s not just the multicrore Vizhinjam port project that is getting delayed due to scarcity of rock. Construction of the sea wall along the coastal areas of the district, that turn vulnerable during the monsoon, also has been hit due to the shortage. Unless urgent measures are adopted, the coastal villages will once again be at the mercy of rough seas during the coming southwest monsoon which is barely three months away.

According to the government, the sea wall along the Thiruvananthapuram coast has eroded over the years. On the north side of the Valiyathura pier, the wall has been damaged along a 1,700 metre stretch. The wall has been totally damaged on the Valiyathura-Cheriyathura stretch. Although the government had floated tenders on multiple occasions, the contractors are wary of taking up the work due to the shortage of rock.
In fact, the government had planned to renovate the wall at Cheriyathura at a cost of Rs 36 lakh, and at Valiyathura, at a cost of Rs 37 lakh. The construction of the 3.1 km breakwater for the Vizhinjam port has also been in limbo due to the same reason, forcing the concessionaire - the Adani Group - to explore the possibility of sourcing rock from Tamil Nadu and Kollam.

The seawall ‘crisis’ had come up in the Assembly the other day with V S Sivakumar MLA raising the issue. Water Resources Minister Mathew T Thomas told the House the shortage of rock is preventing contractors from responding to government tenders. The Ockhi cyclone had further damaged the seawall along coastal Thiruvananthapuram. Although the construction of 15 groynes were taken up, only 20 per cent of the work has been completed so far.

As per the original plan, the work was scheduled to be completed by April this year. Meanwhile, the government is studying other options like ‘geotube’ sandbags for tackling the coastal erosion problem. The technique has been experimented at Chellanam and Alappuzha.With rock turning scarce, the government may have no other option left but to try it in other places like Thiruvananthapuram.