India, Russia finding new N plant site after WBengal's refusal

"I don't know whether abandon is the right word. We have been in consultation with our Russian friends on this and there are some technical issues that have come to the fore and we are working with them on finding another site," official spokesperson in Ministry of External Affairs Syed Akbaruddin said here today.

Designated by the Centre for setting up of one of the Russian power plants, the coastal village witnessed agitation from locals against the project.

Following this, the state government, in the Assembly, announced that it will not allow the proposed nuclear power plant at Haripur in East Midnapore district.

Akbaruddin also said that setting up of a nuclear facility required lot of data collection and information processing. "This is an ongoing discussion. These are technical matters which require our scientists and our nuclear agency to be in regular touch," he said.

Asked about upcoming visit of Russian President Vladimir V Putin and if the scheduling was done due to differences between the two countries on crucial issues of Kudankulam nuclear plant and Russian investments in Sistema, Akbaruddin said it was not due to these reasons.

He also noted that in past also the Russian Presidents have preferred December to visit the country and said "after year 2000, all visits by Russian Presidents for bilateral Summit have been in December".

"The dates are peripheral to the substance in the relations...Peripheral issues are nice parlour games but we have moved beyond that," he said.