Bhavnagar: The Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) has recently informed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to shift the proposed 6,000 megaWatt (MW) Mithivirdi nuclear plant — the first under the Indo-US civil nuclear pact of 2008 — from the coastal district of Gujarat to Kavvada in Andhra Pradesh “on account of delay in land acquisition at Chhaya-Mithivirdi site”.

The plant was to be set up by state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) with technical support from Toshiba Corp’s Westinghouse Electric Company (WEC), which will build six nuclear reactors at the new site.

The NGT order, dated 18 May, which was recently uploaded on its website, said that the change in stance was due to delay in land acquisition at Chhaya-Mithivirdi site.

The 6,000 mega-watt nuclear power plant project, proposed to be built by Nuclear Power Corp. of India (NPCIL) will shift to Andhra Pradesh as farmers there have agreed to give away their lands for Westinghouse Electric’s AP-1000 pressurised water reactors. The project will initially require about 800 hectares of land in the eastern coastal district of Srikakulam.

Mithivirdi was chosen as a preferred site by NPCIL after consulting the state government, which decided to scrap its proposed port project at the same location.

Justice U.D. Salvi, who passed the NGT order, said that NPCIL, in a letter dated 27 March, said that the ministry of environment and forest had agreed to shift the project to Andhra Pradesh.

Some foreign funded, left leaning NGOs had led a movement against land acquisition for nuclear power plant at Mithivirdi due to which land acquisition had not been possible.