India initiates 4 of 19 new nuclear projects

State-run Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd. (NPCIL) plans to raise almost $3.73 billion (200 billion rupees) to set up four new power generation units.

The company wants to establish two facilities in Haryana and two Madhya Pradesh state. Each of them will have a capacity of 700 megawatt, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The firm, however, has not yet received the government’s permission to set up the projects.

India’s increasing energy deficit calls for the use of all available energy sources as conventional ones–such as coal, oil and gas—are scarce and costly. The country’s goal is to take its nuclear power generation capacity to 63,000 megawatts by 2032 from 4,780 MW at present.

In August 2012, a member of the Indian prime minister’s office told parliament that there were plans to build 19 nuclear power plants that would have a total generating capacity of 17,400 megawatts (MW), reports Industrial Info Resources (IIR).

The land has already been acquired in Haryana and the firm is expected to acquire land in Madhya Pradesh within the next three to four months.

About 70% of funding for the project will be by way of debt. Currently, there are talks between NPCIL and India’s Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (Dehradun, India) for a partnership arrangement, but no details on this development have been released.