Delay hampers India's vision of big N plants

All the four 700 MW under construction nuclear power plants are months behind schedule even as the government explores new sites to set up more nuclear power plants.

These units — two each in Kakrapar in Gujarat and Rawatbhatta in Rajasthan — are nowhere nearing completion. Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) officials observed that it would take close to a year before the first 700 MW unit at Kakrapar could start generating electricity.

The construction of the third unit at Kakrapar Atomic Power Plant (KAPP) began in November 2010 while KAPP-4 started in March 2011. Construction of Rajasthan Atomic Power Plant (RAPP)-7 and  8 began in 2011.

Three of the four units were supposed to be ready by June 2016, while only RAPP-8 was to be finished by December 2016.

“By September 2016, as much as 75% work on KAPP-3 & 4 was completed, whereas 61% physical progress was made on RAPP-7 & 8,” Rohit Banerjee, director projects at the NPCIL said.

The officials cited delay in supply of critical equipment as the main reason for delay at the Gujarat atomic power station.

Gorakhpur-Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojana (GHAVP), approved by the UPA government in 2014, has met a similar fate. Construction of the two 700 MW nuclear power plants was scheduled to begin in June 2015, but has not materialised till date.

GHAVP will be the first indigenous nuclear power plant to come up in the new nuclear liability regime. The first two units were to be commissioned by 2020-21, which now appears to be a tall order.

The cost of four 700 MW units in Haryana was pegged at Rs 20,954 crore. The price, however, will shoot up with due passage of time.

Long project gestation period, lack of manpower and issues related to the supply of heavy engineering equipment are some of the major challenges that NPCIL face, Banerjee said at a conference here earlier this week. The inner containment dome of KAPP-3 was installed only in June 2016.

Notwithstanding such delays, the government has approved setting up of more 700 MW nuclear power plants at Kaiga (2), Mahi-Banswara (4), Chutka (2) and Bhimpur (4). In each of these cases, there has been little progress on ground.

However, undeterred with the slow pace of development, the NDA government is now exploring more locations. “We are exploring the possibility of having nuclear power plants near Dehradun in Uttarakhand and near Patiala in Punjab. We are also looking for a place at Bhiwani in Haryana,” Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Jitender Singh said.
DH News Service