A total of four firms have submitted bids for conducting offshore geotechnical investigation at Gulf of Khambhat, off the coast of Gujarat for development of the 1,000 MW commercial offshore wind projects. These include Coastal Marine Construction and Engineering Limited, Fugro Survey (India) Private Limited, RINA Consulting S.P.A and Velciti Consulting Engineers Private Limited. The bids were re-invited by National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) in March 2019.
The scope of work includes carrying out offshore geotechnical investigation work at around the existing LiDAR location in proposed 365 square kilometer area (three boreholes) and additional boreholes at proposed LiDAR locations (two boreholes) at Gulf of Khambhat.
The Government of India had notified the ‘National Offshore Wind Energy Policy’ in October 2015 to realise offshore wind power potential in the country. As per the policy, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy will be nodal ministry and NIWE will be the nodal agency for the development of offshore wind energy in the country.