India and Russia will expand civil nuclear cooperation

The External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid announced that India and Russia will strengthen cooperation in civil nuclear energy and reach commercial agreements for the third and fourth reactors of Kudankulam atomic power plant in Tamil Nadu on 6th October in Moscow. Salman Khurshid explained that the first reactor of Kudankulam plant will start producing electricity soon and go up to the level of generating 1000 megawatts of power. The second unit will go critical by April 2014.  It is important to note that Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited is setting up two 1000 MW reactors at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu with the help of Russia. The announcement was made in Moscow on the occasion of Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on economic, scientific and cultural cooperation ahead of the annual bilateral summit in Moscow in the last week of October 2013. The North-South corridor is essential for promotion of trade. It is also worth noticing that Russia displayed its interest in the TAPI pipe line project starting from Turkmenistan and going via Afghanistan and Pakistan to India.