By IANS,
Chennai : Anti-nuclear activists Tuesday urged the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to conduct a financial audit of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) as it had exceeded the budgeted cost by around Rs.4,000 crore.
In a letter to the CAG, the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) said: “We request you to institute a thorough financial audit of the KNPP Units 1 and 2 which are said to have incurred an additional cost of Rs.4,000 crore, more than the approved cost of Rs.13,171 crore.”
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL), India’s atomic power plant operator, is setting up the project in Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu, around 650 km from here, with two Russian-made VVER 1,000-MW reactors.
KNPP is an outcome of the inter-governmental agreement between India and the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1988. However, construction began in 2001.
Contrary to the earlier expectations of starting commercial operations of the first unit at KNPP by the end of this month, NPCIL has postponed it to March.
NPCIL officials were not available for comments despite several attempts.