Hyderabad: Toshiba-owned US company Westinghouse Electric Company’s vice-president Graham Cable and commercial director Krish M. Rajan on Wednesday met AP Chief Secretary S.P. Tucker here.
The Westinghouse Electric Company is expected to supply six AP-1000 nuclear reactors with a total generation capacity of around 6,600 MW for the proposed nuclear plant at Kovvada in Srikakulam district.
The Central government is directly monitoring the development of the nuclear plant and money was deposited with Srikakulam district collector for acquiring 22,000 acres of land to set up the plant. Sources said AP government officials were unhappy with the Westinghouse Company for not approaching the state government.
A senior official said: “We don’t know about the company and how it is going to implement the project. People are angry over the setting up of a nuclear plant at Kovvada. It is for the company to convince the people.”
The sources said that Mr Tucker asked the Westing house representatives to meet Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and discuss with him about the nuclear plant.
Earlier, the company had proposed to set up the plant in Gujarat, but due to farmers’ protests against the move, the Central government decided to set up this plant in AP.
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington on June 6, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and Westinghouse announced the move to AP with a commitment to complete the commercial agreement for six reactors by June 2017. But the representatives of Westinghouse Company did not meet AP officials and even CM Naidu, since the NPCIL is operating directly.
Surprisingly, the vice-president of Westinghouse Company suddenly arrived in Hyderabad and met Chief Secretary. The AP officials said: “They did not come to discuss about the plant. They came for an informal meeting with the Chief Secretary.”
