Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, July 18: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that the Modi Government has brought the Nuclear Programme to North India, which was earlier confined mostly to the Southern and Western parts of the country, particularly the States like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Responding to a series of questions relating to Atomic Energy on the opening day of the Monsoon session in Lok Sabha today, Dr Jitendra Singh said, it goes to the credit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that in the last four years, the Nuclear Programme of India has achieved a pan-India presence.
Responding to a supplementary query by veteran politician and TMC MP Prof. Saugata Roy who had sought to point out an alleged mistake in the Minister’s written reply saying that the town of Gorakhpur was wrongly mentioned as being a part of the State of Haryana, Dr Jitendra Singh retorted saying, this is precisely what he wants to bring to the notice of this august House that the Gorakhpur that he is referring to in his reply is not the widely known town of Uttar Pradesh, but a lesser known, small town in Haryana which is just over 100 kms away from the national capital of New Delhi. It is in this Haryana town of Gorakhpur, he said, that a nuclear installation has been set up and the work started soon after this government took over. This plant, he added, will become functional in the next 2 to 3 years and will be able to produce cost-effective energy at competitive price, and will also be the first major Nuclear installation in North India.
Dr Jitendra Singh disclosed that by the completion of the year 2024-25, nine new Nuclear Power Reactors will start functioning and the process of establishing these reactors is at various stages of construction. In addition, he said, in June 2017, the Modi Government accorded approval to set up 12 more Nuclear Power reactors.
Not only this, Dr Jitendra Singh said, five new sites have also been identified and accorded in – principle approval by government to set up five more new Nuclear plants. These include Chetapur in Maharashtra, Bhimpur in Madhya Pradesh, Haripur in West Bengal, Chhaya Mithi Virdi in Gujarat and Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh. While the Madhya Pradesh Nuclear Plant, he said, will be purely indigenous, the other four will have collaboration from USA, Russia and France.
Dr Jitendra Singh lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his regular intervention through Video Conferencing during the monthly PRAGATI programme which has helped expedite the process of establishing nuclear projects across the country. It was also on the personal intervention of PM Modi that an unprecedented decision was taken to grant bulk-approval for setting up 12 new nuclear reactors in one go, out of which 10 will be indigenous and two with Russian collaboration, he added.
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