The Hindu Business Line : Kaiga power units to become operational by next year

DR G. NAGESWARA RAO, Station Director, Kaiga Generating Station (left), with Prof K.M. Kaveriappa, Vice-Chancellor of Mangalore University, at a seminar on `Applications of radioisotopes and radiation technology' in Mangalore on Wednesday. — R. Eswarraj

Mangalore , Nov. 29

All the four units of the Kaiga Generating Station of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) are likely to become operational by next year. Though two units are already in operation, the third unit is likely to be commissioned in January 2007.

On the sidelines of a seminar on `Applications of radioisotopes and radiation technology' here, Dr G. Nageswara Rao, Station Director of Kaiga Generating Station of NPCIL, said the third unit is in the process of advanced commissioning stage. He hoped that the third unit would be commissioned in January 2007.

Unit Four

"The unit four is in the advanced stage of construction. It will be taken up for further active commissioning works. The unit four will also be commissioned seven to eight months later. At Kaiga site, four units of 220 MW each will become operational by next year," he said.

The first two units at the Kaiga site were built at a cost of Rs 2,900 crore. Dr Rao said that other two units are coming up at a cost of Rs 2,800 crore.

Performance

Asked about the performance of the first two units at Kaiga, he said both units are performing exceedingly well with the total availability factor of 92 per cent in the last two years.

Delivering a lecture at the seminar — which was organised by Mangalore University and National Association for Applications of Radioisotopes and Radiation in Industry, Mumbai - he said Kaiga Generating Station is fulfilling its technological responsibility of providing environmentally benign quality electricity to the power-starved southern grid.

The power produced from Kaiga Generating Station is distributed among Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, he added.