Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Institute of Ocean Technology for protection of its coasts.
The MoU was signed between Water Resources Department Engineer in Chief B K Mishra and GA Ramdass, Director, NIOT, Chennai, Wednesday.
“The state government is taking all possible measures for disaster mitigation and focusing on zero casualties,” said Water Resources Minister Tukuni Sahu, who was present on the occasion.
National Institute of Ocean Technology, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, is a premier institute in the country specialising in the field of ocean engineering and coastline protection.
On the details of the MoU, Department of Water Resources secretary Anu Garg said that the institute will provide technical guidance, design, and drawing of climate resilient coastal protection measures.
The inhabitants of six coastal districts of the state such as Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, and Ganjam will be benefitted, the secretary said adding that this will be a milestone in the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in the coastal areas of the state.
Odisha has a vast coastline of about 480 km and the coastal areas are exposed to natural disasters. Cyclones cause high tidal surges with very high wind speed, resulting in loss of lives and properties.
Such erosion of the coastline has been observed at many places in the recent past, the secretary said.
“The state government has planned to take up climate-resilient coastal protection measures, raising and strengthening of saline embankments using the latest technology available in the country as a permanent and sustainable solution,” Garg said.
PTI
