Nuclear Power Corporation of India is confident of completing the land acquisition process for its five coastal based plants in the next 18 months.

Mr SK Jain CMD of NPCIL on the occasion of the visit of the 5th US Commercial Nuclear Delegation said that NPCIL planned to create nuclear parks of up to 10000 MW at each site. He added that “We have put a target of 18 months for acquiring the land, pre project activity and creating basic infrastructure at the site.”

Mr Jain further said that “We hope that with the active support from the state governments. It should be possible to achieve the target. Specific clearances from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and from the Ministry of Environment and Forest are also being fast tracked.”

Mr Jain said that in the last four years NPCIL had effectively negotiated with vendors such as GE Hitachi and Westinghouse for the supply of reactors. He added that “A fairly good amount of understanding has been reached in term of technological knowledge of the US companies and competitiveness of India industry and how they could be married together.”

Mr Daniel Roderick senior vice president of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy said that the company has been associated with the Indian nuclear industry for the last 45 years. It will bring the most updated technology for the reactors.

He added that given the sheer number of highly technical and skilled manufacturers in India, GE Hitachi would be able to service the global supply chain from here.

Each park would have minimum of six reactors of 1,000 or 1,650 MW totalling about 10,000 MW. The Centre has given clearances to create the parks at Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

(Sourced from Business Line)