NPCIL has begun geotechnical investigations at Kakrapar for two more 700 MWe pressurised heavy water reactors, KAPS-5 and KAPS-6. The work is real but early: borehole drilling, geophysical surveys and laboratory testing to map the site's soil and rock strata, generating what NPCIL calls "a detailed technical baseline for future civil, structural and foundation engineering works."
For suppliers, the practical message is that Kakrapar 5 and 6 are a pre-sanction pipeline entry, not a procurement event. There is no EPC contractor, no tender, no cost estimate, no first-concrete date and no equipment or steel package on the market. The project sits among four units that World Nuclear News classes as "proposed" in its October 2026 round-up of Indian milestones; eight more are in pre-project activity.
Where Kakrapar 5 and 6 actually stand
| Item | Status |
|---|---|
| Phase | Pre-project geotechnical investigation (feasibility/feed) |
| Reactor type | IPHWR-700, India's indigenous 700 MWe PHWR |
| Capacity | 2 × 700 MWe gross (approx. 1,260 MWe net combined, on the KAPS-3/4 precedent) |
| Site | Brownfield extension of the Kakrapar station, Tapi district, Gujarat |
| EPC contractor | None named |
| Tender / sanction | Not issued |
| Steel procurement | Not started; no packages defined |
| Fleet listing | Not counted as under construction by WNA as of mid-2026 |
The WNA's India country profile updated in July 2026 lists Kakrapar 1–4 in its reactor tables but no 5/6 rows — a useful independent check that the units were not, as of that date, part of India's formally tracked construction fleet. The 2017 Cabinet approval of ten 700 MWe PHWRs in "fleet mode" provides the programme umbrella, but it named four sites without a timeline and did not commit individual units to construction.
India's current pipeline arithmetic, as set out by the Minister of State for the Department of Atomic Energy in August 2026, is five units under construction or commissioning, eight in pre-project activity and four proposed. Kakrapar 5 and 6 sit in that last bucket.
Why a brownfield extension matters more than the headline suggests
Kakrapar is already a four-unit station and, once KAPS-3 and -4 are fully in service, the country's second-largest nuclear site after Kudankulam. The Phase II pair were India's first indigenously built 700 MWe PHWRs, and both reached commercial operation relatively recently — KAPS-3 in June 2023, KAPS-4 in March 2024. Adding a third pair to the same site means shared infrastructure, a licensed site, existing cooling arrangements and an operating workforce.
The preceding units also carry a cautionary record. KAPS-1 and -2, the 220 MWe Phase I units, were taken offline in 2015 and 2016 after coolant-channel leaks and widespread corrosion, requiring channel and feeder-tube replacement before returning to service in 2018 and 2019. That history is a reminder that the value of the Kakrapar franchise now lies as much in lifetime extension and refurbishment of existing units as in new build — a distinction that matters when assessing where commercial activity will actually be found.
The steel question: important later, not now
India's IPHWR-700 programme is marketed domestically as close to fully indigenous, with industry manufacturing the overwhelming majority of components. When Kakrapar 5 and 6 do move forward, they would draw on the same domestic supply chain that delivered KAPS-3 and -4 — heavy forging, calandria and end-shield fabrication, pressure tubes, feeder pipes and steam-generator tubing, alongside conventional civil reinforcement and structural steel.
None of that procurement has begun, and no grades, quantities or suppliers have been published. Any forward view on tonnage or package timing would be speculation. Similarly, the Nuclear Fuel Complex's role as a domestic steam-generator tube supplier is a relevant precedent for Indian sourcing patterns, but nothing in the public record ties it to these units yet. The honest position for steel and metals suppliers is to track this project as a lead-generation item several years out, not as a live enquiry.
Policy signals worth following
The programme logic behind Kakrapar 5 and 6 rests on two things: the 2017 fleet-mode approval, which signalled roughly ₹700 billion (~US$11 billion) of potential Indian manufacturing orders across ten reactors, and more recent government positioning of nuclear as a pillar of long-term electricity supply. In October 2026 WNN reported that India had added further units to the fleet-mode programme beyond the original ten, and that NPCIL has been advancing a parallel small modular reactor design, the SMR-55, developed with BARC.
That broader context is what makes Kakrapar 5 and 6 worth monitoring: they are not an isolated proposal but a site-level extension within a national build-out whose pace depends on sanctioning and financing decisions that have not yet been taken.
What to watch next
- Completion of the geotechnical programme and publication of site investigation results.
- Formal project sanction by the Government of India and the Department of Atomic Energy — the trigger for any tender activity.
- Appointment of an EPC or EPCI contractor, or confirmation that NPCIL will again act as its own architect-engineer and construction manager, as it has on earlier PHWRs.
- Appearance of the units in the WNA reactor table or an official "under construction" classification.
- First concrete for the reactor buildings, the conventional marker for the start of bulk civil steel demand.
The geotechnical start is a genuine milestone — the first step in making Kakrapar 5 and 6 buildable rather than theoretical. It is also, by NPCIL's own framing, a pre-project one. Readers should expect a long interval before the next commercially meaningful announcement.