WASHINGTON, July 3: The Indo-US deal will generate $20 to $40 billion of nuclear trade with a large portion going to businesses in the United States, says a business council which played an important role in getting initial congressional support for the agreement.

The US-India Business Council, which spent more than a million dollars on lobbying Congress, noted that India plans to spend $20-40 billion by 2020 on developing its nuclear capabilities.

This does not include billions of additional dollars US companies hope to gain by selling weapons to India and by investing in a potentially lucrative Indian energy sector.

Commenting on the endorsement of the deal last week by two key congressional panels, the council’s president Ron Somers said: “This was a tremendous, bipartisan step forward. The vote is a positive step towards a deepening partnership with India...US industry is delighted at the outcome.”

The council says that the deal would open new opportunities for both Indian and American businesses.

Indian entrepreneurs would make money dealing in privatised nuclear power plants and buying high-tech equipment from the US that has been restricted for at least three decades.

US businesses will be able to invest in India’s rapidly growing energy sector, sell supplies to Indian nuclear reactors, and — for the first time — to have a shot at large-scale military contracts.

Raymond Vickery, a senior council adviser, told reporters that congressional approval of the deal would give Lockheed Martin a reasonable chance to get a $4 billion to $9 billion contract to supply 126 combat fighter planes to India’s Navy, a contract that India would have been unlikely to approve while sanctions were in place.

Westinghouse, whose nuclear division is based in Western Pennsylvania, could help India build a civilian nuclear reactor, and Atlanta-based General Electric would be well-placed to get a contract to supply India’s reactors with nuclear fuel, he said.

The business prospects have spurred the US-India Business Council, which represents 200 US businesses operating in India, to hire heavyweight lobbying firm Patton Boggs in Washington to work on the issue and hold strategy meetings about how to approach sceptics on Capitol Hill.

The Confederation of Indian Industry, which represents some of India’s most profitable companies, also played a key role in influencing Congress.

The group was among the top international organisations paying for congressional travel between 2000 and 2005, even though they were not registered to lobby at the time, according to a review of congressional disclosure records conducted by the Centre for Public Integrity, a nonprofit research organisation in Washington.

During that period, they paid more than $538,000 in travel expenses for trips by 19 Congress members, 11 spouses and 58 congressional staffers.

The group spent the most money on travel for Representative Jim McDermott, a Washington Democrat, and his staffers, whose four trips to India cost about $40,955.