Hotel owners told to give technical justification, address concerns raised by inspection panel
Sernabatim beach development work is under the scanner.
Photo Credits: The Goan
MARGAO
In an interesting development, a site inspection report compiled by officials of the Goa State Biodiversity Board has called for a stop to the ongoing work of restoration of the Sernabatim beach till the hotel resort there provides technical justification and addresses the concerns raised in the remarks by an inspection panel.
The report compiled by Eng Shruthi V Adpaikar, Project Scientist-I, GSBB-GSCCC and approved by GSBB Member Secretary, Dr Pradip V Sarmokadam, Member Secretary, said the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GSCMA) may take cognizance and issue necessary directions as required under the CRZ regulations.
During the inspection, the team noticed that the necessary restoration work, as mandated by GCZMA, hasn't been carried out.
“The wall, which was supposed to be built under GSBB guidance as directed by GCZMA, has already been constructed by the Hotel Resorts on the Sernabatim beach. It's crucial to engage institutions of par repute like IIT or another equivalently capable institution to assess the stability of the shore constructed gabion structure, as it requires a dedicated team for assessment,” the team remarked.
In fact, the inspection has recommended that the hotel owner should provide a survey plan verified by the appropriate authority to ensure proper property alignment. “Additionally, they should present the approved gabion wall plan from the authorized engineer along with technical justification of the stability, secondary research which supports success of such structures elsewhere or if this is experimental, then there will be no damage to the beach and if such damage takes place, that the resort will ensure expenditure to restore the same,” the team pointed out.
“Till such technical justification, undertaking that addresses above questions in the remarks is submitted and approved by GCZMA, the work on site shall be stopped as directed during green skilling meeting.”
The inspection by the expert panel constituted by the Goa State Biodiversity Board assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of complaints lodged by the Colva Civic and Consumer Forum Secretary Judith Almeida alleging foul play in the beach restoration work.
Commenting on the inspection panel report, Judith said her stand has been vindicated by the observations and remarks made by the inspection team. “I hope the Goa State Coastal Zone Management Authority takes cognizance of the report and initiates necessary action,” she said.
Site inspection report flags several issues, seeks answers from resort
During the site inspection by officials of the Goa State Biodiversity Board, the following observations were made by the expert members after evaluating the work undertaken on the restoration of the Sernabatim beach.
>> During the inspection, no technical experts were present from the hotel resort. The Gabion wall built has been shown with some sketchy details. However, calculations and technical drawings by authorized technical person was not made available to the team and the same needs to be obtained from the Baywatch owners along with the permission from the approved authority, which has granted the construction licence for the said work.
>> The current wall seems to be constructed on what appears to be an underlining front part of sand dune, standing at a modest height of 1.0 metre. In contrast, the newly built concrete wall is positioned 3.45 metres away from the original wall, situated on a levelled section of the beach and reaching a height of 2 metres. There is need to understand the depth of foundation and technical drawing for this wall.
>> Sand dunes on beach side have a typical geo-spatial nature and have co-relation with the weather conditions and natural processes of a beach environment. They are soft, dynamic geomorphological defence line of beach that can absorb the wave action. Whereas both the concrete wall and the Gabion wall must successfully adapt to this situation. But, based on the experience of Baywatch as informed by their representatives, the previous structure made from sand-filled bags had not been able to withstand this environment, hence, whatever is executed on the ground should have such considerations of local environmental set up. The same was not evident as there was no technical expert from the resort, who could satisfy the committee with basis and secondary research for implementing such structures.
>> Sand dune data needs to be accessed from available data sources to understand the original position of the beach prior to the gabion structure. The alignment of the concrete wall and the new Gabion wall both does not match the alignment of the existing masonary wall and has evidently encroached towards the beach side. However, the resort owners have claimed that their property exists much outside even the said location of the Gabion wall. Hence, the boundary location of the property along the beach side needs to be established by the concerned authority.
>> No approval from any authority was produced for the implemented plan, and it needs to be verified if any approval has been processed at any level or any other authority who have endorsed the current execution plan.
>> The neighbouring properties are seen with beach side creeper vegetation and other local plants on sand dunes which needs to be integrated with execution plan and the previously proposed experimental plan by GSBB green skilling committee has not been implemented and no such funds deposited with GSBB for execution of that experimental intervention that was proposed and which could have generated information about performance of such structures in beach environment for erosion control.
