Work on NPCIL Haripur project to start in 2014

Amid controversies surrounding the proposed nuclear power plant at Haripur in West Bengal, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) has said that work on the project will start by 2014.

The environmental evaluation process is expected to be over by 2012 and the land acquisition will kick off only after that.

“First phase of the project will start with in the 12th Five Year Plan Period, probably by 2014. Currently, environmental evaluation like oceanography and geo-technological tests are going on and the results will be ready by 2014. We will go for land acquisition only after that,” said S K Jain, chairman and managing director of NPCIL, on the sidelines of a science meet organised by the Centre For Natural Sciences and Philosophy and Critical Issues Forum here.

In Haripur, the plan is to set up a nuclear park with six units of 1000 mega watt(MW) each, while the first phase includes two units.

The project was facing a rough weather after the Trinamool Congress and the local communities resisted, alleging that the plant will adversely affect the fishing and agricultural community in this coastal belt of East Midnapur district and might lead to a possible rise in the temperature of seawater in the Bay of Bengal.

“In terms of resistance, we have not even entered into that stage. Once the elections are over, we will discuss the issue with the local government. We will go and meet the people there and sort out these ideological issues,” he added. The land required for the project would be around 650 to 700 hectares and the area was allotted to Russian company Rosatom.

The country’s nuclear power plan includes developing 40,000 MW capacity in the coastal region. However, in the 12th plan period, six Russian-made nuclear reactors were in the pipeline — two at Haripur in West Bengal and four at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu.

“Two 1000 MW units are under construction in Kudankulam and two more will be commissioned there with in this fiscal. For Kudankulam, the capex was about Rs 7.2 to 7.5 crore per MW, while it is sold ate a rate as low as Rs 2.50 per unit,” Jain said.

Meanwhile, to find an end to the ongoing acquisition problems in the upcoming 9,900 MW Jaitapur nuclear power project in the coastal Ratnagiri district, NPCIL is planning to line up a number of sops for the land losers.

The new package would cost the NPCIL an excess of Rs 650 crore.

“The compensation for land would be increased to atleast Rs 5 lakh per acre. Other than this, we will rehabilitate them in a proper housing complex. Along with that, a compensation annuity would also be provided for land losers for next 20 years,” he said.

The package also includes pension for old people and job for one eligible member of a land-losing family.