NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh disclosed that decks have been cleared for the first-ever atomic energy plant to be set up in Haryana.
He said, the northern States of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh were so far somehow not actively involved in the atomic energy programme of India which was hitherto confined mostly to other parts of the country and therefore, with this new initiative, India’s atomic energy programme has assumed a pan-India visibility.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said that during his first-ever visit to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) as Prime Minister in the month of July, Narendra Modi had set a target before the scientists for increasing India’s nuclear energy capability to three times within next ten years and with the new Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor to be set up under Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojana (GHAVP), a rapid step forward will be accomplished in the direction of achieving such similarity in the times to come.
Jitendra was addressing a press conference here on Saturday to highlight the achievements of the Department of Atomic Energy during one year rule of the Modi Government,
He said that the project was sanctioned in February 2014 by the earlier UPA government, but further progress and floating of tenders got stalled because of certain issues relating to insurance pool and other matters.
Also present at the press conference were Secretary Department of Atomic Energy Dr. R.K Sinha, Director BARC Sekhar Basu, CMD NPCIL K.C Purohit and DG PIB Frank Noronha.
However, only yesterday, the Department of Atomic Energy succeeded in launching an insurance pool of Rs.1500 Cr and with this, the decks have been cleared for further progress in installing a Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor with a capacity of two units of 700 MW each in Gorakhpur, Haryana.
Also present at the press conference were Secretary Department of Atomic Energy Dr. R.K Sinha, Director BARC Sekhar Basu, CMD NPCIL K.C Purohit and DG PIB Frank Noronha.