Chennai, Mar 22 (IANS): After a long gap, officials of the Nuclear Power Corporation Ltd (NPCIL) will be participating in the power project review meeting called by the Tamil Nadu government here Thursday, said a power sector official.

"The Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu has called a review meeting of the power projects that are coming up in the state Thursday. This is a usual meeting called regularly. What is interesting is that after a long time officials of NPCIL will be present at the meeting to give a status report on the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP)," he told IANS on condition of anonymity.

It is learnt the Kashinath Balaji, project director of KNPP will be attending the meeting.

India's atomic power plant operator NPCIL is setting up two 1,000 MW reactors at Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district around 650 km from here with Russian technology.

Villagers in and around Kudankulam opposed the project fearing for their lives in case of nuclear accident.

The Tamil Nadu cabinet passed a resolution last year asking the central government to stop all project related work till the fears of local people are allayed.

On Monday, the state cabinet passed a resolution giving the go ahead for the project and the police started cracking down on the anti-KNPP protestors under the banner People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE).