Updated by admin on
Tuesday, April 08, 2014 02:28 AM IST
Koodankulam:
The Election Commission cleared the Department of Atomic Energy proposal to sign an agreement with its Russian counterpart for units 3 and 4 of Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant project (KKNPP). The agreement is likely to be signed soon.
The Election Commission had given a green signal late last week, and therefore the DAE will go ahead with the agreement and the project, a senior DAE official said.
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), a public sector undertaking under DAE which builds operates and runs nuclear power plants in the country, has approached its Russian counterpart.
A date will be decided by both the parties for the signing of the agreement. It could be early this month, he added.
In october 2013, the deadl could not be signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Russia following differences over the liability clause. However, the issue had now been sorted out after hectic negotiations.
In March 2014, DAE secretary R K Singh along with other senior officers of the department had a meeting with the Russian counterparts when the two sides agreed on a proposal which was moved before the Cabinet Committee on Security.
However, as general elections were declared a week later, the DAE wanted to get the EC's approval to be on the safe side.
During its ten-year tenure, the UPA government had signed nuclear deals with US, UK, France, Kazakhstan and South Korea for exchange of technology on nuclear issues and import of good quality uranium needed for nuclear plants.
