It has also decided to allocate a special grant of Rs 25 crore in the upcoming Budget for the purpose.

Just last month, a solar power generation plant with a capacity of 600 MW started operations at the Charnaka solar park in the Banaskantha district.

Sources in the state energy and petrochemicals department said, “The state government has decided to explore the state’s tidal power generation potential along with solar and wind power in the coming years. The state government has begun preparing a tidal power generation policy on the lines of its solar and wind power generation policies.”

“The state government has decided to allocate Rs 25 crore in special grant in the upcoming Budget for conducting special surveys and studies to identify potential sites where tidal power generation plants can be set up. Initially, Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA) and the state-run Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd (GPCL) will conduct this exercise. On the basis of their report, the state government will form a policy,” they added.

The state government had signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) with UK-based Atlantis Resources Corporation last year and the company is expected to begin ground work this year. The MoU was part of the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2011. The power plant is slated to be built in the Gulf of Kutch at a cost of around $150 million and will have a capacity of generating 250 MW of tidal power.

Atlantis had earlier conducted a study to ascertain the feasibility of the project which revealed that the country had excellent potential to mete out good levels of productivity in terms of tidal power.