Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- India’s need for uranium will increase 10-fold by 2020 as Asia’s third-largest energy consumer boosts nuclear power generation, the country’s monopoly atomic generator forecast today.

India is seeking cheaper sources of uranium than what it may get through commercial arrangements with companies like Russia’s Rosatom Corp. and France’s Areva SA, which plan to build reactors in the country, said Jagdeep Ghai, finance director at state-owned Nuclear Power Corp. of India.

India will need about 8,000 tons of uranium annually, he said. The nation has signed civil nuclear agreements with six countries, including Canada, Kazakhstan and Namibia, to secure stakes in overseas uranium mines, Ghai said.

“Most of these countries can give us access to uranium,” he said. “Nuclear Power’s strategy is to buy stakes in mines and tie up the source of supply.”

Company officials were in South Africa and Namibia last week assessing offers for stakes, Ghai said.

Atomic energy companies are flocking to India after a three-decade global ban on nuclear trade was lifted last year. The country aims to increase its nuclear power generation capacity 10-fold to 40,000 megawatts by 2035, Nuclear Power Chairman Shreyans Kumar Jain said Dec. 10.

To contact the reporter on this story: Natalie Obiko Pearson in Mumbai npearson7@bloomberg.net.