Gujarat's hope of getting an 8,000-MW mega nuclear power station is coming true as the Nuclear Power Corporation (NTC) has approved a site between Sosiya and Mithi Virdi on the Saurashtra coast (western India) for the plant.

According to Saurabh Patel, Gujarat's State Energy Minister, the project now awaits Union Cabinet's approval.

Officials said, the site was selected after ascertaining that there were no seismic faults in the region. Besides, a nuclear power plant would require huge quantity of water for cooling, which would be easily available from the sea through a desalination plant.

The coveted project would mean an investment to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore by the NTC spread over 10 years. It entails setting up eight units of 1,000 MW each. It is expected that the first unit might start functioning as early as 2012.

State officials say that nearly one third of the power, or about 2,600 MW, would be given to Gujarat which would require an enormous quantity of power as nearly 55 special economic zones (SEZs) were being proposed in the state. Already, 25 of these have been notified, which suggested that industrial and commercial power needs, currently at around 10,000 MW, was expected to shoot up sharply.

NTC had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Gujarat at the last Vibrant Gujarat Summit in January 2007 for the N-power project.

An NTC team, headed by its CMD Dr SK Jain, had visited a total of 20 proposed sites all over India, including four in Gujarat. According to an official sources NTC had short-listed two other sites, one in West Bengal and the other in Tamil Nadu.