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Gogoi to dedicate Matmara dyke on Dec 3

By Ajit patowary

GUWAHATI, Nov 25 � The Rs 141-crore Matmara geo-dyke project is complete. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi will dedicate it to the people on December 3 next. The project is the first of its kind in the country.

The project with the three components of a geo-tube dyke covered by geo-mat, the

geo-tube apron and RCC porcupine, was conceived following demands to save Dhakuakhana and Majuli areas from devastating floods.

It is expected to provide protection against flood for 52,000 hectares of land, 200 villages and 5,00,000 people and thus to improve the socio-economic condition in Dhakuakhana and Majuli sub-divisions.

Meanwhile, the RCC porcupine screen launched in the upstream areas of the geo-tube dyke has resulted reclamation of 1,050 acres of land in

front of the geo-tube dyke pushing the spillway channel of the Brahmaputra towards its main channel. Moreover, the geo-tube apron of the project is so laid that it is expected to check scouring and thus

save the geo-tube dyke, Water Resources Department (WRD) sources said.

It was alleged that there was no major repair of the Brahmaputra dyke in Dhakuakhana area for the past about 50 years and the flood of 2008 caused a major breach in the dyke leading to devastating impact on Dhakuakhana and Majuli areas.

Of the total project cost, the geo-tube dyke component, for a length of 5 km, has cost Rs 100 crore. The raising and strengthening of the old dyke in the upstream and downstream of the geo-tube dyke, for a length of 14 km, and the RCC porcupine screens, comprising 1.88 lakh members, have cost Rs 28 crore, said the WRD sources.

The contract of executing the project was awarded to the Malaysian firm M/S Emaskiara on March 20, 2009. The company was asked to complete the geo-dyke component of the project with an allocated amount of Rs 99.97 crore within 100 days from the date of signing the tender agreement. The work was thus slated to be completed by July 3, 2009.

The geo-tube manufacturing for the project started on March 25, 2009 and on May 2, 2009, the installation of geo-tubes at Matmara started,

as the component of a retirement dyke in a five-kilometer-long stretch.

The tubes are laid in a pyramidal shape with three layers of tubes. The structure contains three rows of tubes at the bottom, two rows at the middle and one row at the top. In all, 1, 200 tubes are required to complete the dyke.

However, the Malaysian company delayed in completing the project due to its inherent weakness and hence the WRD realized a fine amount worth Rs 5 crore from it, said the sources.

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