Enayam Port

Tamil Research Institute
RAPID TECHNO-ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY REPORT FOR
DEVELOPMENT OF COLACHEL PORT AT TAMILNADU
FINAL REPORT
To establish the ambient noise in the study area, monitoring of ambient noise level will be carried out at
representative locations in the study area using a sound level meter over a period of twenty-four hours, with
uniform interval of one hour, in each season.
The sampling locations varied in nature from silence zone to residential areas.
Ambient noise level or sound pressure levels (SPL) will be measured by a Portable sound level meter. A-weighted
equivalent continuous sound pressure level (Leq) value will be computed from the values of A-weighted SPL.
Noise Measurements will be carried out as standards as given by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). At
each location, noise monitoring will be conducted continuously over a period of 24 Hours to obtain Leq values
at uniform time intervals of one hour.
3.2.2. Physiography
Three major units are recognised in Tamil Nadu from west to east. The western part comprises the Western
Ghats roughly trending N-S and marked by a continuous range of Hills, extending from Nagercoil in the south
upto Nilgiri -Bilgirirangan Hills in the north and further northwards through Karnataka. The elevation of these Hills
ranges between 1.275 m and 2.637 m, where Doddabetta is the highest peak in the Nilgiri Hills. The east-west
trending Palghat Gap is a prominent physiographic break in the Western Ghats. The beaches are plain and are
devoid of sand dunes.
The shadow areas of the pocket beaches are intermingled with coconut trees and buildings. Inward from the
shoreline, agricultural land and coconut plantations are present in between human settlements with a semi
urbanised or rural set up. The region is densely populated predominantly by fishermen communities.
The south of Tamil Nadu is named Cape Comorin is the southernmost Indian the subcontinent point. It is a rocky
promontory located at the end of the mountain range of the Western Ghats, which administratively belongs to
the state of Tamil Nadu. Two seas edge of the Indian Ocean, Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal, and the
ocean itself, are there. Cape separates two important coastal regions of India: east, the Coromandel coast and
the west coast of Malabar.
3.2.2.1. Topography
The eastern and south part of Tamil Nadu is marked by a coastal plain with associated landforms like vast tidal
flats, continuous beach ridges, estuaries and lagoons and a narrow but fairly continuous beach.
The coastline of Tamil Nadu comprises a number of cusps, spits and wave cut platforms and several palaeoshorelines.
Some of the palaeo-shorelines extend inland suggesting periods of transgression and regression. The
ongoing geodynamic process is generally progradation along the coast, which is modified at several places by
erosion and deposition by aeolian and fluvial agents. The eastern areas of the central part of the state are
marked by the depositional regime of many Rivers manifested by typical fluvial features like levees, channel bars
and palaeochannels, back swamps and vast flood plains.
The Kanyakumari district encompasses the most southern forest tracts of the Western Ghats. The tract has its
significance in possessing peculiar types of micro-habitats due to its geographical location, physical structure and
varying altitudes. It has a peculiar constitution of the eastern, western as well as southern slopes of the Western
Ghats into its territory.
The terrain is undulated with steep valleys and ridges rising above 1000 MSL at many places. It has an overall
altitudinal range of about 50 MSL to 1650 MSL at Mahendragiri peak. The nature of vegetation formations
together with climate and physical features of the landscape contributes to the habitat pattern of a region. It is
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