For long, the Gujarat government has been hard-selling the sea of business opportunities that its 1,600-km long coastline offers.

With investments to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore along the coastline, made by companies such as Reliance [Get Quote], Essar, Adanis, L&T, Shell Hazira to name just a few, and an equal amount has been lined up for the region over the next couple of years, the government has woken up to an anxious reality.

The state forest and environment department has expressed concerns that the sea level has grown by 0.5 metres in just 50 years, which could pose a threat in long term with industrial belts like Hazira and Saurashtra located on the coastline.  

Already companies like Reliance, Essar, Adani, Shell Hazira, and L&T have lined up big investments to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore and a further Rs 1-1.5 lakh crore investment is on the cards on the Gujarat coastline, said a government official. 

This has only compounded the worries of forest and environment department officials who believe the rising sea level could be a serious factor to reckon with in the next 100 years. This could be quite dangerous for flourishing industries along the coastline, which have come to Gujarat with long-term plans.

"With the sea-level growing by 0.5 metres in the last 50 years, there is no immediate threat to the industries at present but after 100 years this may not be the case. There are no sea-walls in most of the places, which means urban townships on the coastline could be under threat, " said PN Roy Chowdhury, principal secretary, Government of Gujarat, on the sidelines of a seminar on 'Efficient use of Energy'.

He added that the state government would start identifying sensitive areas for some action on the coastline now that the draft notification of the new coastline regulation was in place from the Centre.

Similar worries have been raised by a study conducted by the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) sometime back, which mentions categorically that even a slight prolonged increase in sea level may result in submergence of kilometres of low-lying coastal regions and thus destruction of both life and property worth billions of rupees.

The study mentions that the scientists at the National Institute of Oceanography have developed sea level variation history of the last 14,500 years BP, where the west coast of India was about 100m lower as compared with the present, around 14,500 years before and rose to 80m depth around 12,500 years before with a rate of 10m/1,000 years.

It was followed by a quiet period when the sea level remained unchanged for about 2,500 years. From 10,000 years to 7,000 years before, sea level rose at a very high rate, that is,  20m/1,000 years. After 7,000 years BP, it fluctuated to more or less the present level.