NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said India is rapidly working on 10 new nuclear reactors and has pledged to increase its nuclear energy capacity tenfold.
Addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day, he said India is taking major initiatives in the field of nuclear energy while keeping the energy needs of the future in mind.
"Work is progressing rapidly on 10 new nuclear reactors and, by 2047, we have pledged to increase our nuclear energy capacity tenfold... We are bringing major reforms in the nuclear energy sector," he said.
"In the field of energy, we all know that we are heavily dependent on many countries for our energy needs whether it is petrol, diesel or gas... We have to spend billions of rupees to import them. It is very important to make the country self-reliant in this regard," Modi said.
The prime minister said that in the past 11 years, solar energy capacity has increased 30-fold. "We are building new dams so that hydropower can be expanded and clean energy can be made available," he said.
He added that India is also investing thousands of crores of rupees in the Hydrogen Mission.