Haryana in race for nuclear plant

The government will consider setting up an atomic power plant at Kumharia in Haryana. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said this on Wednesday after laying the foundation stone for six-laning of the Panipat highway.

He added the proposal would be considered when India moved into the next phase of developing nuclear power.

Interestingly, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav had, during the Budget session, led a delegation to the prime minister to demand setting up of a nuclear power plant in Bihar.

The Rs 325 crore (Rs 3.25 billion) six-laning project is expected to decongest Panipat, situated on the busy Delhi-Chandigarh route.

The project includes construction of an elevated highway for long-distance vehicles while the local traffic will have exclusive space at the ground level.

The project is expected to be completed within three years. The six-laning work is being undertaken by the National Highway Authority of India under the North-South corridor project for four- and six-laning of highways connecting Srinagar and Kanyakumari.

The concessionaire for the project, which is being undertaken on a BOT basis, is L&T Panipat Elevated Corridor Pvt Ltd. The project has a viability gap funding component of Rs 96.4 crore (Rs 964 million) and the concession period is 20 years.

The prime minister said the government had also begun preparatory work for four-laning Delhi-Hissar portion of NH-10. The contract will be awarded by the end of the year. The project, the prime minister said, was expected to be completed in two to three years.

Work on the elevated road at Badarpur and the extension of Delhi Metro to Gurgaon would be expedited, the prime minister said.

Singh said that the UPA government was investing about Rs 1,80,000 crore (Rs 1800 billion) on roads. Last year, contracts were awarded for four-laning nearly 5,500 kms of national highways, he added.

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