The Hindu Business Line : NTPC-Nuclear Power Corpn venture to be in place by Jan

New Delhi, Dec. 5 Power major National Thermal Power Corporation’s (NTPC) plan to get into the nuclear generation business, through a joint venture with State-owned atomic energy monopoly Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), is likely to take shape by January 2009.

The venture is set to take up a cumulative capacity of 2,000 MW, following which NTPC could go in independently with its nuclear power plans on a commercial basis.

The proposed venture, where NPCIL would have a 51 per cent stake and NTPC 49 per cent, is likely to be ready by January, the Minister of State for Power and Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, told Business Line. NTPC would be the first firm after NPCIL to enter the nuclear power generation business.

“We hope that by early next year NTPC’s joint venture with NPCIL will be in place. It will be initially for a 2,000 MW capacity. This (the JV) is right now under discussion and we hope to clinch it by the first week of January… Three rounds of discussions have already taken place and we hope to have the venture in place by January,” Mr Ramesh said.

NTPC has already amended its articles of association for venturing into nuclear power generation. NTPC being a Government-owned company qualifies under the existing guidelines of the Atomic Energy Act 1962, to set up and operate nuclear power plants.

Pvt players

Apart from NTPC, players from the private sector companies such as Tata Power, GVK, Vedanta Resources, Reliance Power and others have also evinced keen interest to set up nuclear power projects.

However, any amendment of the Atomic Energy Act is unlikely in the medium term and hence participation of private players in setting up nuclear plants is ruled out for a while. They can, however, participate in equipment manufacturing for future Light Water Reactors on the anvil, Mr Ramesh said.

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