India is building nuclear power stations to meet the growing energy demands of its increasingly urban population and to shift away from environmentally-damaging coal-fired electricity.

The six European Pressurised Water reactors will be for a 9,900 mw nuclear power project at Jaitapur, south of Mumbai in the state of Maharashtra, GE and EDF said in a joint statement released on Tuesday.

India plans to have nuclear power generation capacity of 22,480 mw by 2031 through projects including Jaitapur, where construction has not yet started, junior minister for atomic energy Jitendra Singh told lawmakers in April.

EDF will be responsible for engineering integration of the entire project, while GE Power will design the critical part of the plant and supply its main components, the companies said.

GE will also provide operational support services and a training programme to meet the needs of the state-run Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd, the plant's owner and operator.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Alexander Smith)