Kalam suggests 10-point action plan on KNPP project

Chennai, Nov 7: A day after giving a thumbs up to the Koodankulam Nuclear Plant, former President A P J Abdul Kalam has suggested to the Centre a 10-point action plan for development of the area including creation of 10,000 jobs, four-lane highway and a world-class hospital.

Vouching for the project's safety, Kalam, who visited the site yesterday, said people should not have "even a nano sized doubt" over the safety of the project, as it met all the four safety aspects - nuclear criticality, radiation, thermal hydraulic and structural integrity safety.

Construction of a four-lane highway connecting Koodankulam and villages 30 km around it with Madurai, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari, a world-class hospital with over 500-beds, mobile medical facilities to locals and creation of 10,000 jobs to people in the radius of 30 to 60 km and bank loans to youth with upto 25 per cent subsidy, have been suggested by him.

In his study report submitted to the state government, Kalam also suggested creating infrastructure facilities like construction of green houses, multi-storeyed housing complex, and playgrounds.

He said fishermen in the area should be provided with motorboats, small jetties and fish cold storage facilities.

Kalam, who prepared the report along with his advisor V Ponraj, said efforts should be made to provide locals one million litre of drinking water through desalination process and water should be brought from Pechiparai reservoir in Kanyakumari district for agriculture and drinking water needs.

The report also suggested setting up of five CBSE and state government syllabus schools with hostel facilities, connecting all villages through broadband Internet, setting up of Disaster Protection and Management Centre and guiding selected youth to get permanent employment.

Kalam, a strong advocate of nuclear energy, said, "At the same time, efforts should be made to remove people's fears by providing relevant information and with their full co-operation, the plant should start functioning as scheduled to enable Tamil Nadu to get 1000 MW power."

PTI