Encroaching waves lay bare the fact that even ₹1.25 crore spent on geobags along vulnerable stretches has not been fully effective.
| Photo Credit: H.VIBHU
After a brief lull, Chellanam has yet again come under heavy battering by the sea since Tuesday (July 22, 2025), and the situation is likely to get worse with severe high tide influenced by new moon predicted from Thursday (July 24, 2025).
As has been the case at different points since the onset of the monsoon, the nearly 5-km stretch between Puthenthode and Kattikadavu is marked either by missing or worn-out seawall and geobags. The encroaching waves have laid bare the fact that even the ₹1.25 crore allocated from the State Disaster Management Fund to place geobags along vulnerable stretches has not been fully effective.
“The piecemeal manner of placing geobags is not going to help. Where fresh geobags have been placed, the old, worn-out ones next to them came off and were easily breached by the waves. Even the temporary fix of deploying geobags is far from complete and is proving ineffective as it should have been done before the onset of the monsoon. The situation is likely to turn even worse for the next nine days from new moon, which is forecast on Thursday,” said V.T. Sebastian, general convener of Chellanam-Kochi Janakeeya Vedi.
The State government had on July 3 approved the ₹306-crore project for the second phase of the tetrapod seawall construction in Chellanam panchayat. The proposed project will cover the remaining 3.6-km stretch from Puthenthode to Cheriyakkadavu as was originally planned in the first phase, which was completed in 2023 at an investment of ₹347 crore. Though the first phase was originally planned to cover areas up to Cheriyakkadavu, Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society Limited, the project executor, could only cover the 7.3-km stretch till Puthenthode following the revised estimate.
Chellanam-Kochi Janakeeya Vedi, however, has demanded that the second phase be extended by another couple of kilometres up to Beach Road. The organisation pointed out that wrapping up the second phase at Cheriyakkadavu would only further worsen the impact of sea incursion on the rest of the coastal stretch in the panchayat like Kattipparambu, Kaithaveli, Manasserry, Saudi, and Beach Road. “This is exactly what has been happening on the stretch from Puthenthode to Cheriyakkadavu in the years since the completion of the first phase from the Chellanam fishing harbour to Puthenthode in 2023. The situation on the stretch beyond Cheriyakkadavu would only be far worse considering that there are houses right by the seawall in many places there,” said Mr. Sebastian.
Published – July 23, 2025 11:57 pm IST
