Haryana may soon become home to Northern India's first nuclear plant as a 1,400 MW nuclear power plant is under construction near Gorakhpur village, which is located about 150 km north-west of New Delhi.

Disclosing the above information on Saturday (18 February), Union Minister of State for Atomic Energy, Dr Jitendra Singh said that during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s regime, one of the major achievements would be the installation of Nuclear Energy plants in other parts of the country, which were earlier confined mostly to the Southern and Western parts of India.

Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojana (GHAVP), having two units of 700 MW capacity each of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) of indigenous design, is under implementation near Gorakhpur village in Fatehabad district in Haryana.

Till date, Rs 4,906 crore has been spent out of the total allocated funds of Rs 20,594 crore.

Construction of other main plant buildings like Fire Water Pump House (FWPH), Safety Related Pump House (SRPH), Fuel Oil storage area 1 & 2 (FOSA 1&2), Ventilation stack, overhead tank (OHT), Switchyard Control Building, Safety related and Non-safety related tunnel and trenches, retaining walls and garland drain is progressing well.

Ground improvement in turbine building - 1 and 2, 220 kV Switchyard and IDCT - 1A is completed. A 400kV switchyard, emergency makeup water pond and station roads are in progress.

“Purchase orders for major long manufacturing cycle equipment like Primary Coolant Pumps, Calandria, Reactor Headers, Refuelling Machines Heads, Moderator and other D20 Heat Exchangers, etc. are already in place,” the Department of Atomic Energy said.

“End Shields and all Steam Generators for the first unit have been received at site. Manufacturing of other equipment is in various stages and delivery at site is expected well in time to meet the construction schedule,” it added.

Also, the construction of water duct from Tohana to GHAVP for meeting operational cooling water requirements has been taken up through Haryana Irrigation and Water Resources Department (HI&WRD) as deposit work and progressing well.