PANAJI:
The recent proposal for a nuclear power plant in Goa mooted on his recent visit by Union Minister for Power Manohar Lal Kattar may have kicked up a row with Opposition political leaders and parties slamming it as 'destruction of Goa' but some sections of industry are seemingly enamoured by the idea.
The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), a leading industry representative organisation in the State, has said a nuclear power plant for Goa is "worth exploring".
The Chamber said its infrastructure committee held a meeting to discuss the announcement of a nuclear power plant in Goa made by Khattar last week.
"All the members (of the infra committee) felt that additional power is required in Goa in view of increasing demand. Other options like power generation from coal, waves, wind, hydel, solar, etc have not been found feasible to meet the rising power demand. Hence it is worth exploring the option of the Nuclear Power as suggested by the Union Minister for Power," the Chamber said in its e-Weekly released on Monday.
GCCI's infrastructure committee is headed by Gerard D'Mello, who chaired the meeting which was also attended by Joseph D’ Souza (Mentor), Dr Jennifer Lewis e Kamat, Maria Durairaj Prakash Lotlikar, Shrikant Dhond and Kiran Ballikar.
The committee also deliberated on the goal to achieve 24x7 water supply and was of the opinion that it was possible in some areas.
The N-power plant announcement made by Khattar had kicked up a row, with the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) slamming the proposal and threatening to launch an agitation if the government proceeded with the plan.
This led to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to deny that there was any such proposal and asserting that a nuclear power plant will "never come in Goa."
Power Minister Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavlikar also weighed into the controversy and said that several emerging technologies were being explored for producing power to meet the rising demand and nuclear power was one of them. He also slammed the Congress and AAP, accusing them of trying to politicise the issue.
