The permission, announced on Thursday, has been issued to Anushakti Vidyut Nigam Limited (Ashvini) for the 700 MWe pressurised heavy water reactors planned at the plant, in the Banswara district of Rajasthan.
Ashvini is a joint venture between Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (51%) and National Thermal Power Corporation (49%) formed in 2024. Construction consent was issued for all four planned units at the Mahi Banswara plant last year.
The project is part of India’s fleet mode initiative to build ten identical 700 MWe reactors at various locations across India under uniform design and procurement plans, an approach the Indian government says will bring in cost efficiencies and speed deployment, while consolidating operational expertise.
The other reactors that make up the ten planned units are Kaiga units 5 and 6 (in Karnataka), Gorakhpur units 3 and 4 (Haryana), and Chutka units 1 and 2 (Madhyar Pradesh). Two 700 MWe PHWR units at Kakrapar, in Gujurat, are already in commercial operation. Rajasthan units 7 and 8 are currently in the commissioning process.
India, which currently has about 7,900 MW capacity from 24 operable nuclear power plants, is planning a large expansion of its nuclear capacity. The country says that seventeen nuclear power reactors with a total of 13,100 MW capacity are either under construction (7) or under pre-project activities (10). The ambition is for India to reach a nuclear energy capacity of about 100 GW by 2047.
