Haryana, NPCIL in talks for N-power plant

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Chandigarh: The scheduled visit of a team of Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) officials to Haryana on December 2 will kick off formal discussions on the proposed nuclear power plant in the state. Haryana, which has recently bagged a nuclear power plant to be set up over 1,000 hectare in Kumharia village in Fatehabad district, will soon start planning its pre-project activities.

Madhusudan Prasad, financial commissioner and principal secretary power, told FE that this would be the first interaction with the NPCIL team after the project was approved by the Centre under the 11th Plan period. “The team will visit the site and hold meetings with the chief minister and other concerned departments for three days. The plant will be based on indigenous technology and in the first phase, two units of 700 mw will be developed,” Prasad said.

The NPCIL team will be led by its chairman-cum-managing director, SK Jain and will include S Thakur, executive director, corporate planning; TR Arora, chief engineer and MN Ray, advisor, NPCIL. Detailed discussions will be held between the senior officers of the state and NPCIL for securing different facilities like land and water and finalising the future course of action.

“The estimated investment to be catalysed by the project is around Rs 12,000-Rs 14,000 crore. There is a proposal to develop a total of four units of 700 mw each over a period of time based on natural uranium and water,” Prasad added.

The nuclear project will provide a cheap and clean source of power to Haryana and its neighbouring states. The state government has already appointed Haryana Power Generation Corporation (HPGCL) as the nodal agency for establishing this nuclear power project by NPCIL. The land for the project, 1,000 hectare (about 2,471 acre), will be acquired by the state government around the villages of Kajalheri, Gorakhpur and Kumharia in Fatehabad district. Also, adequate compensation and annuity will be provided to the landowners under the policy laid down by the state government on acquisition of land. The state government will also provide 320 cusec of water for the project.