Brahmaputra Board inks pact with IIT-Guwahati for flood, erosion control

Guwahati, July 30: The Brahmaputra Board has joined hands with the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, for flood and erosion management in the Brahmaputra and Barak basins in Assam. The Brahmaputra Board in a press release said that its chairman and IIT-G director had a discussion during a joint visit to Majuli and both the organizations agreed to have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in the field of hydraulic and allied research focussed on flood and erosion management of the Brahmaputra and Barak rivers.

The North Eastern Hydraulic and Allied Institute (NEHARI), under the Brahmaputra Board, is carrying out a study for the protection of Majuli island in collaboration with IIT-G. Massive floods devastate Majuli, the world's largest freshwater river island, and erosion by the Brahmaputra takes away a large part of it. The hydraulic model laboratory of NEHARI is the second such laboratory of its kind in the country after the one at CWPRS, Pune. [Readmore]

Row as tetrapods are dumped by Bandra Bandstand without study

MUMBAI: Questions are being raised after concrete tetrapods, leftover from the coastal road-building at Haji Ali, were dumped into the sea along the Bandra Bandstand promenade without waiting for a report on the erosion of the coast from the Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS), Khadakvasla.

In fact, the Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) issued permission to shift the tetrapods two days before a planned site visit of the CWPRS. The site visit came on March 5, two days after the Mumbai Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) had given MMB the go-ahead.

TIMESVIEW

It is intriguing that the state maritime board neither waited for a report from the Central Water and Power Research Station nor conducted a deep-sea study before dumping the tetrapods at Bandra Bandstand. Government engineers appear to have only two solutions for all ills — concrete and construction. They need to work with nature to create a liveable environment. [Readmore]