NTPC-NPCIL JV floats ₹28,000 crore tender for nuclear power plant in Rajasthan
A joint venture between NTPC Limited and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) floated a tender worth about Rs 28,000 crore for a nuclear power plant project in Rajasthan.
The project is notable as India's first nuclear power plant not wholly owned by NPCIL, which has historically held 100% ownership of all of India's operating nuclear power capacity.
India's total installed nuclear power capacity currently stands at about 8.8 GW, all of it fully NPCIL-owned prior to this joint-venture project.
The joint-venture structure allows an additional public-sector partner (NTPC) to bring capital and execution capacity to nuclear power generation, which remains restricted to government-owned entities under Indian law.
From NPCIL Monopoly to PSU Joint Ventures — the Atomic Energy (Amendment) Act, 2015
The Atomic Energy Act, 1962 restricts nuclear power generation to entities wholly owned by the Central Government, a restriction historically satisfied only by NPCIL, a 100% government-owned company. The Atomic Energy (Amendment) Act, 2015 changed the statutory definition of "Government company" to include a joint venture in which the entire paid-up share capital is held collectively by two or more government-owned companies, opening the door for other public-sector undertakings to co-own nuclear generation capacity with NPCIL for the first time — while continuing to bar private-sector and foreign equity from nuclear power generation itself.
Key Details
- The 2015 amendment modified Sections 2 and 14 of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962
- Before the amendment, "Government company" required only that the Central Government hold at least 51% of paid-up capital; the amendment extended this to joint ventures wholly owned by two or more government companies
- The joint venture formed under this framework, Anushakti Vidhyut Nigam Limited (ASHVINI), is held 51% by NPCIL and 49% by NTPC Limited
- Private and foreign investment remains confined to the nuclear supply chain (equipment, components, services) and is not permitted in nuclear power generation itself
The Rajasthan project is the practical demonstration of the 2015 amendment's purpose — mobilising NTPC's balance sheet and project-execution scale alongside NPCIL's nuclear operating expertise, resulting in India's first nuclear plant that is not entirely NPCIL-owned.
Financing Nuclear Capacity Expansion — Why Ownership Structure Matters
Nuclear power plants are exceptionally capital-intensive relative to other generation sources, with long construction timelines and high upfront costs recovered only over decades of operation. NPCIL alone has been financially constrained in scaling capacity fast enough to meet India's stated expansion targets, making a joint-venture ownership model with a larger, cash-generating public-sector partner like NTPC (India's largest power generation company) a mechanism to add capital without amending the Act to permit private ownership of generation.
Key Details
- India's nuclear capacity target is 100 GW by 2047, from a base of about 8.8 GW currently installed — a roughly eleven-fold increase
- Near-term capacity is projected to reach about 22–23 GW by 2031-32 from projects already under construction or in advanced planning; the remaining gap to the 2047 target is intended to be filled through broader participation of public-sector enterprises, state governments, and — pending further legal reform — private players
- The government has indicated plans to further amend both the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 to accelerate capacity growth, including greater emphasis on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)
- NTPC, India's largest power generation utility by capacity, brings both project-financing capacity and thermal/renewable project-execution experience to the nuclear joint-venture model
The NTPC-NPCIL joint venture reflects an interim solution — using the 2015 amendment's PSU-JV route to add capital velocity toward the 100 GW-by-2047 target while more far-reaching ownership reforms (private participation) remain under policy discussion.
Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 and the Investment Climate
The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLNDA), 2010 establishes a no-fault liability regime for nuclear accidents in India and is unique internationally in providing, under Section 17(b), a right of recourse for the plant operator against equipment or service suppliers if a nuclear incident is traced to defective supply. This supplier-liability provision — introduced partly in response to lessons drawn from the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy — has been a long-standing point of concern for both domestic and foreign nuclear equipment suppliers, who fear open-ended liability exposure, and is cited as a factor constraining investment and joint-venture participation in India's nuclear sector.
Key Details
- CLNDA, 2010 caps the nuclear plant operator's liability at a fixed amount but does not similarly cap supplier liability under Section 17(b), a divergence from the global Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC) framework, which typically channels liability to the operator alone
- The government has stated it is examining amendments to CLNDA to ease supplier-liability provisions as part of the broader push to accelerate nuclear capacity addition
- The ownership structure of a project (fully NPCIL-owned versus a PSU joint venture) is distinct from, but related to, the liability question — both are legal-framework issues that determine how much external capital and expertise can be mobilised into Indian nuclear projects
- The Mahi Banswara project in Rajasthan for which the NTPC-NPCIL joint venture (ASHVINI) has floated tenders comprises four Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) units of 700 MWe capacity each
The ownership-structure innovation seen in this project (a non-wholly-NPCIL-owned plant) is one part of a broader set of legal and financial reforms — alongside the pending CLNDA amendment — aimed at unlocking capital and reducing risk perception in India's nuclear power sector.
- Tender value: approximately Rs 28,000 crore, floated by the NTPC-NPCIL joint venture
- Significance: India's first nuclear power plant not wholly owned by NPCIL
- India's current installed nuclear capacity: approximately 8.8 GW, entirely NPCIL-owned prior to this project
- Joint venture (ASHVINI) equity split: NPCIL 51%, NTPC Limited 49%
- Legal basis for PSU joint ventures in nuclear generation: Atomic Energy (Amendment) Act, 2015 (amending Sections 2 and 14 of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962)
- India's nuclear capacity target: 100 GW by 2047 (announced in the Union Budget, February 2025)
- Projected near-term capacity: approximately 22–23 GW by 2031-32
- Relevant liability statute: Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, with supplier-liability provision under Section 17(b)