Rel Power to play a meaningful power in nuclear sector:Ambani

Mumbai, Sep 23 (UNI) Awaiting policy changes by government to usher in private sector projects in the Nuclear power sector, Reliance Power today said it would play a meaningful role in the development of Nuclear power in the country.

Addresing the AGM of Reliance Power, Chairman Anil Ambani said it would take eight to ten years before the first private Nuclear power project took shape in the country.

He said Reliance Power would, over the next eight years, commission 28,000 MW of power projects. The company was also aiming to enter the renewable energy sector in a big way, enhancing its solar and windpower portfolio.

Mr Ambani said the 1200 MW Rosa Power Project will need over Rs 5000 crore investment and that the project's Phase-I of 600 MW has achieved financial closure. He expected Rosa Phase-I to come on stream six months ahead of its schedule.

He said the annual growth of five per cent achieved by the sector had created a huge mismatch in the demand and supply of power, the one sector in which the country lagged behind even the other developing countries. To maintain a eight to ten per cent GDP growth rate, the power generation capacity must witness a eight to nine per cent growth annually.

He said there were at present over one lakh villages and nearly 40 per cent of the people of India who had no access to electricity at all. Even the villages which had so far been electrified got at best eight hours of power supply everyday.

''The situation was not very different in our top cities amongst the large Indian cities. Mumbai, which Reliance Infrastructure had the privilege of servicing is perhaps the only city in India that has a track record of uninterrupted and reliable power supply. In nearly all other major cities from Chennai to Bangalore, from Hyderabad to Lucknow, from Delhi to Jaipur, indeed a vast majority of our top 100 biggest cities demand far exceeds supply leading to a large of assured power effecting the lives of millions of people,'' he added.

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