Rs 334-cr project for sea walls: Min

Thiruvananthapuram: The state government is considering a project worth Rs 333.75 crore for constructing and reinforcing the sea walls along the state’s coast, water resources minister K Krishnan Kutty said in the assembly on Tuesday.
Replying to a calling attention motion by T V Rajesh, the minister said a meeting of the MLAs whose constituencies have sea shore will be convened immediately in consultation with the chief minister to discuss the matter. The minister said the government has also approached the World Bank with a proposal worth Rs 373 crore for the sea wall project. He said the government would give administrative sanction and technical sanction in a time-bound manner.

Raising the matter, Rajesh said as many as 24,854 families are living within 50 metres from the shoreline, and most of them are facing the grave threat of coastal erosion. He said the maximum life of sea walls is only 10 years, and in the last 10 years, not much maintenance have been done for the sea walls.

He said most of the wells in the houses near the shore have become useless due to the intrusion of saline water.

Meanwhile, speaker P Sreeramakrishnan said priority should be given to those shore areas that are densely populated while constructing the sea walls.