India, Russia finally sign agreement on Kudankulam 3, 4 units

New Delhi: After years of deadlock on liability issue, India and Russia have signed an agreement for building units 3 and 4 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant project (KKNPP) at a cost of Rs 33,000 crore.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) signed a General Framework Agreement (GFA) with its Russian counterpart yesterday, sources said here on Friday. However, some permissions are required from Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AREB) before work on the project could actually start, they said. Units 3 and 4 of the KKNPP have stuck over the "Right to Recourse" Clause of the Civil Liability Nuclear Damage Act 2010 (CLND) as the Russians have been apprehensive over it. In October last year, the deal could not be signed over the same issue when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Russia due to lack consensus over the issue between both the countries. However, the issue has been sorted out after hectic negotiations. Last month, DAE secretary R K Singh along with other senior officers of the department had a meeting here with the Russian counterparts in which the breakthrough was made. Things were expedited and the proposal was moved before the Cabinet Committee on Security last month. The atomic energy department wanted to seek permission of the Election Commission as polls were declared a week later. "We wanted to play safe and did not want any kind of hurdle as the project has already been delayed for a long time," the sources said. "KKNPP 1 and 2 also got commissioned during the Manmohan Singh tenure and the government wanted this agreement to be signed at the earliest," the sources added.