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Kaiga project is 100 per cent safe, says Kumaramangalam

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

Why do Indian atomic power plants look unsafe? Because they have no Anglo-Saxon appearance.

That is what Union Minister of State for Power P R Kumaramangalam believes. "Otherwise our atomic power plants are much safer than any western plant, especially the French ones," he commented in Goa, where he was grilled over the issue by journalists during a brief visit to the state.

Kumaramangalam dismissed all fears about the Kaiga atomic power project which is coming up 30 kilometres from Panaji, in Karnataka's border region of North Kanara.

"It is the safest among all such plants in the western region," the minister said with conviction.

Kumaramangalam, minister of state for science and technology in the Narasimha Rao ministry, blamed the contractor, and not the design, for the collapse of one dome of the project. He believes it is perfectly safe to complete the construction following the same design.

Protests from several environmental groups and citizens of North Kanara received negative response from the authorities when the project was planned a decade ago. But a wave of fear and panic spread all over the district when a dome collapsed halfway during construction.

The controversial power project is expected to be commissioned by the year end. It would generate around 400 MW of electricity for the four southern states.

Goa Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane had also wanted the project stopped when several ministers, MPs and MLAs from Karnataka's north-western region demanded so. But now, as its construction nears completion, Goa has demanded a share of its produce.

Kumaramangalam has agreed to negotiate with the southern states to provide 50 MW of power to Goa. "I fully sympathise with Goa's demand as it is caught between the West and the South," he said.

While the tiny tourist state is planning to go for full-fledged privatisation of the power sector to overcome the crisis it is going through, Kumaramangalam has cautioned that privatisation alone cannot solve the problem. He pointed out that of the 23 per cent national loss on transmission and distribution, only seven per cent is due to technical problems while the remaining 16 per cent is theft.

"Making transmission and distribution more efficient and accountable with the help of good management and honest functioning can solve our problems," he said.

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