DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, Oct 21: The Sagardweep Jetty, which is being constructed near Ross and Smith Islands has developed major defects even before completion of the project.
According to reports the berthing Jetty has subsided nearly 2 feet, raising concern over safety of public and wastage of public money. The entire project costs nearly Rs. 4.5 crores.
As per details in June 2012 ALHW floated tender for the Construction of jetty at Sagardweep (Ross & Smith Island) and approach Jetty.
The Tender was for Approach jetty as well as Berthing Jetty. The Tender value and material cost is about 4 Crore 57 Lakh rupees.
Although it is not in completion stage as the land side approach is still remaining, the Berthing Jetty is now started subsiding. In the last two year, the jetty reportedly subsided by nearly two feet into the sea.
The Approach Jetty is about 200 metre and Berthing jetty is about 120 metre and both are not interconnected with each other. There is no partition in berthing jetty while approach jetty is made with two partitions and also not connecting with berthing jetting to withstand any Earthquake or natural calamities.
The contractor in the mean time constructed a step to adjust the height from berthing jetty to approach jetty but no trick seems to be working.
Unless the surface area is in level, vehicles can’t come in the berthing jetty.
The ALHW believes that this happened due to movement of some Geo Tectonic plates but no reply has been received officially yet. Sadly the entire project is in danger now.
When contacted the Chief Port Administrator of PMB Dr. R D Tripathi replied to Andaman Sheekha over SMS that after this incidence came into his notice, ALHW has been requested to provide reasons. “Report is yet to be received,” he mentioned.
However, a Senior Official of ALHW told Andaman Sheekha on the condition of anonymity said that infact no feasibility Check was carried out by ALHW as this new jetty is close to the Gandhi Jetty, for which feasibility test was already carried.
“We have found some defects now as the berthing Jetty of Sagardweep has gone down. We have conducted a test of all the piles and pile-load test has also been carried out. The matter has been referred to the IIT Chennai and they have also visited the jetty once,” he said.
“As per the study till now the IIT Chennai has said that it can be a liquefaction affect but still they are going to conduct some more tests. He further said that even though there is no danger but yes such thing shouldn’t happen again,” Senior Official of ALHW added.
