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The reason for the opposition from the villagers is, the villagers claims that there was no public hearing for the said project, which is a mandatory step, as well as is not happy with the compensation package being offered by government agency.
Sources from the NPCIL said that, the compensation package for the village is already in place and NPCIL will soon start its process.
NPCIL’s Project Director, C. B. Jain claims that there will be not displacement of any single family while acquiring the land, since 67% of the land is barren, 25% was grass land and only 7% had a single crop of paddy on it.
The Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project involves setting up of six European pressurised water reactors (EPRs), each with 1,600 MW capacities, comprises of 10,000 MW and is expected to be completed by 2020. The NPCIL has tied up with French state-owned nuclear energy giant Areva for the project.
The first stage, involving the construction of two EPRs, at an estimated cost of Rs33,000 crore, would be financed through a mix of debt and equity. Of the Rs33,000 crore, nearly Rs23,000 crore will be debt component, about Rs15,000 crore would be made available by the Export Credit Agency (ECA) and the rest would be raised from domestic and international markets.
The ECA will be from a consortium of five French banks, including BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, HSBC Calyon, and Natixis. While NPCIL would infuse equity of Rs10,000 crore for the project, the remaining amount will be borrowed from both Indian and French financial institutions.
The work on the project is expected to start by the next year end, Jain said. The Memorandum of Understanding for supply of reactors was signed in February. The NPCIL said the project would aim at 80% indigenisation, though this would vary according to the costs involved.
By Rahul Kamat
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