Kerala has approached the prime minister’s office with a request that the state be allotted 500 MW power from the same plant.
Kerala, which vehemently opposed the setting up of any nuclear plant in the state and strongly opposed construction of transmission towers to draw power generated in the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, has approached the prime minister’s office with a request that the state be allotted 500 MW power from the same plant.
“The Department of Atomic Energy had initially proposed to set up the Russia built plants in Kerala. In fact the then Soviet Union had preferred Kerala as the location to set up these ultra-modern plants because of the fact that the state was ruled by the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front. It was following a massive anti-nuclear agitation undertaken by the Kerala comrades themselves which made the DAE to opt for Tamil Nadu which obliged by offering vast stretches of land,” said a senior DAE official who was associated with the project from the initial days itself.
He said the Kerala government, media and the anti-nuclear lobby did not allow even setting up of transmission towers and lines in the state to draw power from KNPP. “They spread all kinds of rumours that even the power generated at KNPP was radioactive and hence dangerous to the environment. Now they are demanding 500 MW of the power to be generated at KNPP,” said the official on condition of anonymity.
Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandi has written to the prime minister requesting that the state be allotted 500 MW of power from Kudankulam. The 1000 MW first unit of the KNPP is expected to attain criticality by this month end and the second unit will become operational in another two months. Kerala’s demand comes immediately after Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa asked the Centre to allot the entire 2000 MW generated in the two units to the state. Tamil Nadu is undergoing a severe power shortage with a peak hour deficit of 4000 MW.
According to the rules formulated by the Union government, Tamil Nadu is eligible for 970 MW from the total 2000 MW. The rest will be distributed to the other southern states.
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