KARWAR: “The Central government had given approval in principle for the establishment of fifth and sixth units, each with an installed capacity of 700 MW at Kaiga power plant,” said Director (Operations) of Nuclear Power Corporation India Limited (NPCIL) G Nageshwar Rao.
He was addressing the media at the Kaiga Generating Station here on Saturday, where he said that work on these units was likely to commence in April this year.
NPCIL Executive Director N Nagaiah, said construction of the units should be completed by the end of the coming five-year plan period, according to plan. “However, this also depends on the reaction from local residents.” Site director of Kaiga project J P Gupta said that the NPCIL had acquired 120 hectares of forest land for the construction of six units. 85 hectares had already been utilised for the construction of the first four units. “There was no need to acquire additional land for the new units,” he explained.
Rao said that the NPCIL had adopted special technology to enhance safety of these nuclear power projects, for which six committees had been formed; the committees will also deal with any unexpected incidents inside the nuclear installations.
Rao said that the NPCIL, as part of its corporate social responsibility, would open a health centre at Mallapur village shortly.
On why the Kaiga township was not located within the 5-km radius around the Kaiga station, he said that the land was not available.