Construction of Units 5 and 6 at the India’s largest nuclear power plant at Kudankulam has reached implementation stage as Russian ASE Group of Companies (a part of ROSATOM State Atomic Energy Corporation) and Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) inked three main contracts for the construction of new units.
The General Framework Agreement for construction of the Kudankulam NPP third stage (Units 5 and 6) in the Southern state of Tamil Nadu was signed on July 31 during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Russia in June 2017. The construction of the two units are estimated to cost Rs 50,000 crore and it will start generating power in seven years’ time. ASE Group of Companies, an engineering division of ROSATOM State Atomic Energy Corporation, will be constructing the units.
The contracts are: for supply of the equipment with long manufacturing cycle, for the first priority design works and for supply of the working documentation.
“The project of construction of Units 5 & 6 of Kudankulam NPP is entering into the stage of implementation. Designing, development of procurement procedures of main equipment from Russia begin to complete Units 5 and 6 of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant,” said Andrey Lebedev, Vice-President for Projects in South Asia, ASE Group of Companies.
The first unit is planned to be commissioned in 66 months and the second one will come up in the following 12 month. The project is funded through 70 per cent loan from the Russian government. Moscow would be lending India a total of USD 4.2 billion for a period of 10 years for the delivery of equipment and documentation for the construction of the NPP third stage. The agreement between the two firms envisages the construction of Kudankulam NPP power units 5 and 6 under Russian design. Each of the two units will have the capacity to generate 1000 MW of power each.
Kudankulam NPP is constructed within the scope of the Russian-Indian agreement dated November 20, 1988. ASE Group of Companies is the general contractor (regarding detailed design, equipment supply and technical assistance) for the project. The power plant is envisaged to have a total electricity generation capacity of 6,000 MW. The plant construction had begun on March 31, 2002 and the first unit was linked to the Southern power grid in October 2013.
The cumulative nuclear power generation capacity of the 22 nuclear power reactors of India is 6,780 MW and the two additional units at Kudankulam will add to the capacity considerably.
