India's Nuclear Power Corporation Moves on Four of 19 New Projects

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--In August 2012, a member of the Indian prime minister's office told parliament that there were plans to build 19 nuclear power plants that would have a total generating capacity of 17,400 megawatts (MW). State-owned Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (Chennai, Tamil Nadu) and Bhabha Atomic Research Center (Mumbai) each will build 1,300-MW projects, and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) (Mumbai) will build 17 plants in the program, which will cover five years through March 2017.

This week it was announced that NPCIL plans to raise $3.73 billion to set up four 700-MW power generation units. There will be two in Haryana and two in Madhya Pradesh. The company has not yet received government approval for the projects, said S.A. Bhardwaj, NPCIL's technical director.

Land has been acquired in Haryana, and the Madhya Pradesh sites will be secured in the next three to four months, Bhardwaj said.

About 70% of funding for the project will be by way of debt. Currently, there are talks between NPCIL and India's Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (BSE:500312) (Dehradun, India) for a partnership arrangement, but no details on this development have been released.

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