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| Indian companies sought an early modification to the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi Jul 30, 2008, 17:00 IST |
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Indian companies have sought an early modification to the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 to facilitate the entry of the private sector in nuclear power generation, an Assocham statement said today.
Asking for the amendment to be carried out through a Presidential notification, Assocham said Indian companies are confident that the nuclear cooperation deal with the United States would be implemented in the next few months.
Assocham polled 300 CEOs asking them whether private sector participation was needed in nuclear power generation. Of the CEO’s polled, as many as 255 want an immediate modification to the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 to allow private sector participation.
The CEOs feel this could help India generate 20,000 Mwe (megawatt equivalent) by 2020. Assocham said the Act debars private sector to take part in nuclear power generation as a result of which India has so far restricted its nuclear power generation capacities only to an extent of 3,900 Mwe in over 60 years of independence.
Releasing the findings of the survey, Assocham President Sajjan Jindal, who himself wants to diversify into nuclear power generation feels that after the Manmohan Singh government won the recent vote of confidence, nuclear power developers not only from US but countries in the European Union have started assessing the nuclear power potential of India.
This is so because it is now increasingly being felt that India would be able to muster up all necessary supports from its coalition partners and agencies overseas for signing of nuclear deal and therefore, the expectation that India would allow private players to foray into nuclear power generation is fully justified, the statement added.
The statement added that India would be able to attract FDI to an extent of $40 billion in a period of 10-15 years in the sector.
Assocham added that the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 only allows nuclear component manufacturers to supply components to those that put up nuclear power plants in a very limited way. Therefore, the survey says that the nuclear deal if passed could also open up new vistas of equipment makers for nuclear power plants.
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