PM Modi to lay foundation stone for Mahi-Banswara nuclear power plant on September 25

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the Mahi-Banswara Nuclear Power Plant in Rajasthan on September 25. He will also inaugurate and dedicate projects worth over Rs 1.21 lakh crore, including clean energy initiatives.

The nuclear project marks NTPC Limited’s entry into the atomic energy sector. The Mahi-Banswara Rajasthan Atomic Power Plant will be developed through a joint venture between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and NTPC, with NTPC holding a 49 per cent stake.

The project involves setting up four indigenous pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) of 700 MWe each, with a total capacity of 2800 MWe. It will be built on about 1,300 acres along the right bank of the Mahi river, upstream of the Mahi Bajaj Sagar dam. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 42,000 crore, and it will be under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Once commissioned, the facility will be the second nuclear power plant in Rajasthan after the Rajasthan Atomic Power Project (RAPP) at Rawatbhata, which has seven operational units with 1880 MWe capacity and one 700 MWe unit under construction. According to a power ministry official, the Mahi-Banswara plant is expected to take six and a half years to complete.