Production of electricity from the Koodankulam nuclear power plant could start within the next month, according to Minister of State in the PMO, V Narayanasamy.
Speaking at the airport, en route to his customary weekend visit to Puducherry on Saturday, Narayanasamy said that the safety committee appointed by the Centre was “almost done” with their inspection.
“As soon as this safety committee gives us the go-ahead, the Union government will ensure that the power production process is started within 20 days,” he said.
He said that the committee had been staying in the plant for the past 45 days and had inspected all the machinery, protocols and safety mechanisms in the plant.
On April 23, Narayanasamy had given the plant 40 days to start producing electricity. “After the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board gives its final safety certificate within a week, we will load the fuel - uranium. It will take 20 days for the trial run. After 20 days we will start the actual production,” Narayanasamy had said. Apparently, the calendar has shifted.
“There have been delays, but once this clearance (safety committee’s) comes, everything will fall into place,” he said.
Narayanasamy also reacted strongly to Anna Hazare’s statement that he would consider floating a political outfit soon. “I welcome this announcement. Let him start a party and let him face the people. Then he will know what politics and running the country is all about,” he said. However, he cautioned the Gandhian to “abandon” the people around him as they were not above corruption and were using the movement for “personal gain”.
When asked about UPA’s southern ally, the DMK, reviving the TESO movement, he sidestepped it, saying it was a matter of that “party’s ideology”, which did not require assent nor acceptance from the Congress.
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