The government has reportedly given the nod to build two new 1,000MW units at Kudankulam nuclear plant.

The nod has been given days ahead before the Russian around Rs 40,000-crore offer lapsed. The Russian side had given a revised offer following the lapse of the previous offer last November.

A team from Russian side was reportedly in Mumbai to discuss the final offer with the Nuclear Power Corp of India Ltd (NPCIL). It is expected that the two sides identified an acceptable price band within the limits of the existing offer, which is a 70-30 debt-equity ratio.

NPCIL will provide equity of around Rs 12,288 crore, while the remaining amount of Rs 27, 640 crore will be provided via Russian state credit and market borrowing of Rs 18,132 crore and Rs 9,508 crore, respectively.

Meanwhile a source said that the Indian government was ready to pay more if Russia accepted its nuclear liability law.

The senior government source said, "The additional cost being incurred for adhering to Indian liability law can be loaded into the reactor price and that is our position as we are looking to seal the deal for reactors 3 and 4."

The Jayalalithaa government in Tamil Nadu has meanwhile taking a tough stand against the long-running protests against the nuclear plant, in a bid to meet its poll promise to improve the situation of power in the state.

The Kudankulam reactor 1 will become operational later this month and reactor 2 is expected to start functioning before the end of this year.