North India's first nuclear power plant will come up in Haryana in the village of Gorakhpur in Fatehabad district, 150 km north of the national capital, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh has said.
Announcing it in New Delhi on Saturday, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, and Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh said that during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's regime, one of the major achievements would be the installation of nuclear/atomic energy plants in other parts of the country, which were earlier confined mostly to south Indian states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh or in the west in Maharashtra, according to a statement from the Department of Atomic Energy.
Jitendra Singh said that this is keeping in line with the priority to increase India's nuclear capacity, a number of path-breaking decisions were taken in the past eight years. He added that a bulk approval of the installation of 10 nuclear reactors has been given the nod by the Modi government.
The minister said that the department of atomic energy has also been given permission for forming joint ventures with public sector undertakings (PSUs) for resources to opening up atomic energy plants, which is an upcoming and promising sector and has potential to fulfill India's energy needs in times to come.
Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojana (GHAVP), which will have two units of 700 MWe capacity each of pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) indigenous design, is under implementation near Gorakhpur village in Fatehabad district in Haryana, according to the statement from the department of atomic energy. Till date, an amount of Rs 4,906 crore has been spent from the total allocated funds of Rs 20,594 crore. The statement said the total financial progress is 23.8 per cent as on date.
Construction of other main plant buildings or structures, namely fire water pump house (FWPH), safety-related pump house (SRPH), fuel oil storage area, ventilation stack, overhead tank (OHT), switchyard control building, and others, is progressing well, according to the department's statement released on Saturday.
Purchase orders for major long manufacturing cycle equipment/components like primary coolant pumps, calandria, reactor headers, refuelling machines heads, moderator and other heat exchangers, etc, are already in place, according to the department's statement.
The statement added end shields and all steam generators for the first unit have been received at site. Manufacturing of other equipment is in various stages and delivery at site is expected well in time to meet the construction schedule.
( With inputs from ANI )
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