Construction work on the 4 MW Gosaba tidal power project is expected to begin shortly after the monsoons, senior officials from West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency informed ProjectsToday. All the clearances for the Rs.40 crore were received in June 2006.

The project will take shape in Durgaduani Creek in the Sunderbans delta, connecting the Vida and Gomor rivers in West Bengal. The project that will take 30 months to complete promises to provide electricity to around 50,000 people residing in the Sunderbans area.

The Gosaba tidal project is part of India's largest renewable energy programme that WBREDA is scheduled to undertake beginning this year. The programme aims to positively affect the lives of over 1 lakh residents of the far-flung Sunderbans area.

Other aspects of this programme include a 3 MW biomass power plant backed by a 1 MW solar power plant that would electrify around 130 villages in the Sunderbans area. Besides, a wind-diesel hybrid power plant (Phase II) is scheduled to come up at Sagar Island by March 2007. Other initiatives include two solar photovoltaic cells of 55 kw, a 150 kw biomass gassifier power plant and a 40 kw woody biomass gassifier power plant.

According to reports, over 15,500 families derived benefits of electricity supplies in the first eight months of 2005-06 alone. In all, around 95,000 families in West Bengal have benefited through power supplies from non-conventional energy sources.