DAE8217;s power project emerges powerless

NEW DELHI, OCT 30: An ambitious project of the Department of Atomic Energy DAE costing over Rs 16,000 crore to generate about 8,000 meg...

NEW DELHI, OCT 30: An ambitious project of the Department of Atomic Energy DAE costing over Rs 16,000 crore to generate about 8,000 megawatt nuclear power by the year 2000, has completely gone haywire with DAE failing to generate a single MW of power.

The Comptroller and Auditor General report tabled in the Parliament on Friday, blames faulty planning and resource crunch by the DAE for squandering the money. The project called Nuclear Power Profile was envisaged in 1984 for installation of twelve 235 MW and ten 500 MW Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor Plants at a cost of 16,661.50 crore to be implemented during 1985-2000. But, 14 years later and after spending Rs 5,291 including 2,674 crore raised through capital market borrowing, till March last year, DAE had failed to complete even one plant. The DAE spent 1,444 crore from this amount on debt servicing.

Interestingly, the DAE has been looked after by successive prime ministers themselves and abject failure of such important project, reflects on theirconcern for poor power scenario in the country.

The Standing Committee of Tenth Lok Sabha on Energy in its evaluation of Nuclear Power programme four years ago said, quot;since the plants are not likely to be completed in near future and equipment were left with only scrap value, the entire expenditure, had to be viewed as infructuousquot;.

The cost of construction of the 22 plants at 1989 price level was envisaged at Rs 15,755 crore on the presumption that financial sanction for 14 plants would be available by 1989-90. The Government however, approved only four plants by this time. Financial sanction for other two 500 MW Tarapur Atomic Power Plant 3 and 4, for Rs 2,427 crore was given in January 1991 but was revised to Rs 6,421 crore in December 1997. The cost of the two projects excluding the interest component Rs 1,580 crore, had thus already gone up almost by 100 per cent. Interestingly, financial sanction for remaining 14 power plants had not been issued till March last year, though the entire project wassupposed to be completed by the year 2000.

In view of the project coming a cropper, the DAE itself lowered its target from 7880 MW to 6050 MW in 1990 further reducing it to 3820 MW in March 1994. With none of the six plants sanctioned with a capacity of 1940 MW had not been completed till March last year, prospects of any addition to the existing nuclear power capacity, appear bleak. DAE officials told the CAG in February this year that the delay in completing the project was caused by inadequate budgetary support to the NPP in early 1990s.

But theCAG found that the priorities of the DAE were grossly misplaced.