Haripur Nuclear Project Returns With Reliance Proposal

Fifteen years after West Bengal cancelled a proposed nuclear power project at Haripur near Contai, the coastal site has once again emerged as a potential location for a major energy investment.

Reliance Industries has proposed setting up a nuclear power plant at Haripur, with the group estimating that the project could attract around ₹2 lakh crore in investment over the next 6–7 years.

The Haripur site was previously identified for a nuclear project by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL). The earlier proposal envisaged a 1,000 MW nuclear power unit with Russian technical collaboration. The project was cancelled in August 2011 following opposition from local fishermen and villagers.

Around 2,000 acres at the site had undergone seismic, geotechnical, hydrological and environmental surveys as part of the earlier project planning.

Reliance is currently keen on developing the nuclear project at Haripur. However, the West Bengal government has suggested Nayachar near Haldia as an alternative location for the proposed investment.

The nuclear proposal is part of a wider set of investments discussed by Reliance for West Bengal. The group has also proposed an AI-enabled data centre in New Town, hotels in Kolkata, the Hills and the Sunderbans, as well as a coal gasification project.

If the Haripur proposal progresses, the project could bring a large-scale investment into West Bengal's energy and infrastructure sector and put the coastal site back on the state's industrial development map.

For Haripur, the latest proposal marks a return to a location that was at the centre of West Bengal's nuclear power plans more than a decade ago.