Kaiga 5 and 6 receive first End Shield, marking reactor assembly start

The first End Shield for Kaiga units 5 and 6 has been unloaded on site, turning the project’s new-build effort from civil works into the opening stage of reactor assembly. The component, manufactured by L&T Heavy Engineering at Hazira, weighs 107 tonnes, stretches about 9.3 metres across and is nearly a metre thick.

The unloading was handled with a 500-tonne crane, a 70-tonne crane and a 10-tonne chain pulley block, a combination that underlines how precisely the first major reactor hardware has to be placed. The End Shield is the first large piece of equipment for the reactor core. It provides structural support to the coolant channel assemblies, enables on-power refuelling and forms part of the calandria vault enclosure.

For Kaiga, that matters because the project has now moved beyond excavation and poured foundations into the part of the schedule where the reactor’s defining structures start going in. First concrete for Units 5 and 6 was poured on March 1, 2026, after the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board cleared the pour in late February. Excavation at the site began in May 2022, and NPCIL’s fleet-mode briefing noted that the main plant area excavation was complete and preparatory work for first concrete was under way.

Kaiga-5 is expected to reach first criticality about five years after first concrete, which points to a 2031 target. The two units are the first set of ten indigenous 700 MWe pressurised heavy water reactors sanctioned by the Government of India for fleet-mode deployment, and once they are complete, Kaiga’s total capacity is expected to rise to 2,280 MW.

The supply chain is also moving in parallel. Larsen & Toubro has already manufactured and dispatched four of the eight steam generators for the pair, while NPCIL issued the EPC purchase order for Kaiga 5 and 6 to Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Ltd in April 2025. The contract was valued at INR 12,800 crore.