NPCIL studies N-plant for Hry

Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) has initiated the process to set up a 4X700-Mw nuclear power project in Haryana, which would be a green project with zero emission.

A team of senior officers of NPCIL, led by its Chairman and Managing Director S K Jain, held its first meeting with the senior officers of the state government to discuss various issues concerning the ambitious project involving an investment of Rs 12,000 crore, before visiting the site of the project between Kumharia and Gorakhpur in district Fatehabad.

They would also call on Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Friday in New Delhi. The Centre had accorded in-principal approval for setting up of 4X700 Mw in two phases in October 2009, he added.

He said the pre-project activity would be completed by 2010-11 or early 2012. The construction of first and second units would be started by March 2012.

Work on units 3 and 4 would commence after about three or four years when work on Kumharia 1 and 2 units tapers off. It was revealed that the tariff for the nuclear power projects was coming to about Rs 2.70 per unit, which is a very competitive rate considering the tariff prevailing in the coal-fired generation units in the country. He said NPCIL had been establishing nuclear power generation projects in a time frame of 50-60 months, which is one of the earliest project erection schedules anywhere in the world.

Jain said this would be a green project with zero emission and the radiation level would also be within the prescribed limit.

In his presentation, NPCIL Executive Director S Thakur said they would require 500 hectares of land to set up the project, whereas the earlier proposed area was 1,000 hectares.

It is worth mentioning here that NPCIL has set up 17 nuclear power projects and four more projects were under construction.