Beach restoration sparks hopes, but closure hits livelihoods

Months after Shanghu­mug­hom Beach was closed for extens­ive res­tor­a­tion and coastal pro­tec­tion works, hopes are rising that the project will revive one of the city’s most iconic water­front des­tin­a­tions. However, with the beach remain­ing out of bounds, res­id­ents and small-scale vendors say the pro­longed clos­ure con­tin­ues to take a toll on live­li­hoods and tour­ism.

The ongo­ing res­tor­a­tion com­bines a ’14-crore beach reju­ven­a­tion project with a ’25-crore coastal pro­tec­tion ini­ti­at­ive to tackle severe sea erosion that has battered the shoreline in recent years. Once a favour­ite even­ing des­tin­a­tion for fam­il­ies and tour­ists, Shanghu­mug­hom has remained largely inac­cess­ible since work began earlier this year.

Redu­cing wave energy

Accord­ing to Sheikh Pareed, man­aging dir­ector of the Ker­ala State Coastal Area Devel­op­ment Cor­por­a­tion (KSCADC), the coastal pro­tec­tion project has been designed to safe­guard the entire Shanghu­mug­hom shoreline while pre­serving the nat­ural dynam­ics of the mar­ine envir­on­ment. Based on recom­mend­a­tions from the National Insti­tute of Ocean

Tech­no­logy (NIOT), the inter­ven­tion aims to reduce wave energy using sci­en­tific­ally designed oshore struc­tures. Unlike con­ven­tional hard-engin­eer­ing meth­ods, the project adopts an envir­on­ment­ally friendly approach inten­ded to address coastal erosion without adversely affect­ing the beach, mar­ine eco­logy or the sea’s nat­ural move­ment.

The long-term object­ive, he said, is to restore shoreline sta­bil­ity and enable the sus­tain­able use of one of the cap­ital city’s most prom­in­ent pub­lic spaces.

Shanghu­mug­hom ward coun­cil­lor Ser­aph­ine Fredy described the project as a neces­sary inter­ven­tion for the area. She said the ini­ti­at­ive, being imple­men­ted jointly by the Ker­ala State Dis­aster Man­age­ment Author­ity (KSDMA) and the Irrig­a­tion depart­ment, was cru­cial for pro­tect­ing the coast­line and ensur­ing the safety of res­id­ents. She expressed hope that the project would also help revive eco­nomic activ­ity around the beach.

In a spot

While o­cials remain optim­istic about the project’s long-term bene ts, local busi­nesses con­tinue to struggle. Vendors oper­at­ing near the beach say the move­ment of con­struc­tion mater­i­als has gen­er­ated heavy dust, dis­cour­aging vis­it­ors from spend­ing time in the area. With tour­ist foot­fall drop­ping sharply, many say daily earn­ings have dwindled and sus­tain­ing their busi­nesses has become increas­ingly di­cult.

For many res­id­ents, the project’s suc­cess is tied not only to pro­tect­ing the coast­line from fur­ther erosion but also to restor­ing Shanghu­mug­hom’s iden­tity as one of Thiruvananthapuram’s most cher­ished pub­lic spaces. Until then, the beach remains a work in pro­gress, bal­an­cing the prom­ise of long-term resi­li­ence against the imme­di­ate hard­ships faced by the com­munity that depends on it.

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