BL reported that the Indian government is looking at opening up the country’s nuclear sector to private sector players, as well as participation by foreign firms.

The Economic Survey 2008-09 said “The atomic energy act needs to be amended to permit private corporate investment in nuclear power, subject to regulation by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and the Atomic Energy Commission. It has also prescribed that rules need to be framed for allowing up to 49% FDI in the sector.”

The Survey said “The nationalized coal sector is a major roadblock in the steady growth of power sector, which is the largest consumer of the dry fuel. As long as the coal sector remains a public sector monopoly, it could remain a bottleneck for accelerated development of the power sector.”

It said “The document has recommended the private sector’s entry into coal mining to help reverse the substitution of domestic coal by imported oil and coal. The reasons for the lower growth in power generation during the last financial year were shortage of coal and gas, shortfall in capacity addition, delay in achieving commercial operation or commencement of full generation from the plants.”

The survey “The plant load factor or the efficiency of the coal based thermal power plants declined during the period due to loss of generation because of shortage of fuel among other things. The power sector consumes nearly 74% of the country’s coal production. Coal fired thermal plants account for 66% of the total 1,49,392 MW power generation in the country.”

It said that as against the capacity addition target of 7,530 MW for 2008-09, only 3,454 MW was added up to March 31st 2009. The reasons for the underachievement of the target were delayed and non-sequential supply of material by suppliers, shortage of skilled manpower for construction and commissioning of projects, contractual disputes between project authorities, contractors and their sub-vendors, delay in readiness of balance of plants by the executing agencies.

(Sourced from Business Line)