Land acquisition for nuclear project in AP at advanced stage: Govt

Land acquisition for a nuclear project at Kovvada village in Andhra Pradesh' Srikakulam district is at an advanced stage and the process of obtaining environmental clearance is under progress, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

In a written reply to a query during the Question Hour, Minister of State in the PMO and Atomic Energy Jitendra Singh said the nuclear project involves setting up of six AP-1,000 reactors of 1,208 MW each.

He told the Upper House of Parliament that any delay in the implementation of the project was not on the part of Indian authorities but the onus lies with the US.

"On emergence of a viable project proposal and accord of administrative approval and financial sanction by the central government, the commercial agreement will be signed with Westinghouse, USA, and work on the project will commence," he told the House.

Singh said the discussions to arrive at the project proposal to set up nuclear power projects with foreign cooperation involves complex financial, commercial, legal, regulatory and other issues, which take time for conclusion.

"As pointed out by the member, the treaty was signed in 2008 by the then government and even at that time it was praised because it gave us a departure from what was being very widely described as nuclear apartheid," he said.

He said it gave rise to a new era of world-level cooperation and imports of uranium also gathered momentum at that time. It was decided to establish some reactors with US collaboration, he said.

"The present government took this forward. If there was a delay in between, the onus does not lie on the Indian authorities," the minister informed the House.

He said the US gave this project to an authorised firm called Westinghouse Electric Company which filed a plea of bankruptcy in 2017.

They appealed that the Indian company NPCIL take up the construction project because they had taken the responsibility of Engineering Procurement and Construction, he said.

While NPCIL was in discussion, a Canadian firm by the name of Brookfield Business Partners LP, which bought Westinghouse, the minister said during the Question Hour.

"Therefore, onus lies on what was happening on the US soil," he added.

"Now this company is in talks with NPCIL to take things forward. But we are confident that after the new business arrangement comes into being, this will again gather pace," Singh said.