The Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC) is set to incur a revenue loss of Rs 1,300 crore on account of loss of generation of 4,800 million units from the Kudankulam nuclear project by the end of current fiscal.
The 2,000-Mw project in Tamil Nadu was supposed to commence power generation from its first phase by mid-November and from the second phase in March. Both these will now be delayed owing to an ongoing agitation by villagers around the project site in downstate Tirunelveli district, demanding the scrapping of the project.
The NPC now fears that failure to carry out essential services may lead to the degradation of the plant.
Also, its maintenance would be a challenge, given that the plant had already conducted hot run last month.
NPC Chairman and Managing Director S K Jain said the stoppage of work at the plant site would mean that the company would have to bear a monthly interest payment of Rs 15 crore on a loan of Rs 6,500 crore from the Russian government besides a loss of Rs 120 crore per month.
“So far, an investment of Rs 13,171 crore has gone in. As of now, it will be difficult to project the additional investment needed for the completion of project,” he told Business Standard.
Jain said NPC was “struggling” to maintain the systems running. “If bare minimum maintenance is not allowed, then the plant is heading for degradation due to corrosion and deposit of salt,” he noted.
Also Read
“We have to maintain the vital parts including reactors, safety system, computers, simulators, electronic and computerised systems.”
At least 150 employees are required for maintenance purpose in addition to 400 general staff. However, NPC was allowed the entry of 40 to 50 employees. “They are trying their best to avoid a permanent degradation of the plant,” Jain said.
Mumbai-headquartered NPC is running 20 plants with a generation capacity of 4,780 Mw in the country.
Since the availability of fuel following the signing of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal and access to the Nuclear Supplier Group, there has been increase in the generation and plant load factor besides the revenues and profit of the 1987-founded NPC. The generation has increased to 24,000 million units in 2010-11 from 18,000 million units in 2009-10. It was estimated to rise to 36,000 million units by end of 2011-12. “However, the lack of generation at the Kudankulam itself will lead to a loss of 4,800 million units and a revenue loss of Rs 1,300 crore,” Jain explained.
More than 6,000 contract labourers have already been retrenched; it would take at least six months to remobilise them. “The remobilisation of contract labourers will be possible only on extra payment to contractors. After we get the signal to commence operations at full scale, our employees will have to check the existing systems including safety systems,” Jain said.
In a nutshell, an additional six to eight months means, “we have to bear interest penalty, additional payment to contractors, compensation to Indian contractors including L&T, BHEL, ECIL, Lloyd Insulation”, he said. Currently, these Indian contractors are unable to carry out their jobs and their machines are lying idle “so that they may claim compensation for them”.