ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

Work on India's first 2000 MW atomic plant to start in 2002

Siddhartha B Arya

Construction of India's first 2000 MW atomic power plant, an Indo-Russian joint venture at Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu, will begin in 2002, before the Ninth Five-Year Plan ends.

Project Chief Engineer S K Jain said plans for the project, signed in July last year between the Nuclear Power Corporation and its Russian counterpart, Atomstroy Export, had already come into effect.

The finance ministries of the two countries are completing the necessary formalities to help implement the project report.

The project involves two units of pressurised heavy water reactors of 1000 MW each based on the Russian Voda Voda Engineering Reactor to be set up at an estimated total cost of about Rs120 billion.

Clearance to start construction has been obtained and site investigations, including hydrological surveys and micro-seismic studies, have been completed, Jain said.

Land has been acquired for the plant site and a township. Preliminary infrastructure like an approach road, power and water have already been established.

In addition to Kudankulam, the Nuclear Power Corporation is scheduled to begin work on expanding the Kaiga Atomic Power Plant, adding two more units - numbers 3 and 4 - in the Ninth Five-Year Plan.

Work on units 1 and 2 of the plant in North Canara district of Karnataka are in an advanced stage. Commissioning work is in full swing for unit 2, which is expected to go critical in June, six months before unit 1.

Das said construction of units 3 and 4 of the Rajasthan Atomic Power Plant at Rawatbhatta is 92 per cent complete and testing of the system and equipment are in progress.

These units, of 220 MW each, are expected to achieve criticality in June and December 1999 respectively, he said.

Meanwhile, construction work has begun on the country's first two atomic power plants of 500 MW each --- Tarapur 3 and 4. Industry leaders have been invited to take up work packages on an engineering/procurement/construction basis. Both these units are expected to be ready by June 2005, he said.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report