Bhubaneswar (PTI): Worried over shore erosion due to high tidal wave at many places along Orissa's 480-km-long coast, the state government today decided to prepare a long term strategy to protect beaches, official sources said.

A day after announcing its plan to initiate shore protection activities in Puri, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik asked the officials to ensure that a thorough study was conducted to know the reason behind sudden roughness of the sea along the state's coast.

"IIT-Chennai has been assigned the job of the study to know reasons as well suggest ways on how to tackle the situation," Patnaik told reporters after the meeting.

The meeting attended by secretaries of various departments, including forest and environment, revenue, the state's chief relief commissioner and other scientists agreed to conduct a study and take of shore restoration activities on war footing.

Besides Puri, shore erosion were noticed at Konark, Paradip, Chilika, Gopalpur, Kendrapara along the coast.

Though some experts observed that the tide had become violent in Orissa coast due to rise in the sea level, Patnaik asked them to wait till the study report by IIT-Chennai was available.