OREANDA-NEWS.   Moscow, April 18. Russia and Bangladesh initialed the construction contract on Ruppur NPP in Bangladesh.

ROSATOM reports the contract was initialed during an official visit of a Russian delegation to Dhaka, which enveloped negotiations between ROSATOM Deputy CEO Nikolai Spasskiy and State Minister for Science and Technology Yafes Osman. An agreement was reached to accelerate by the Bangladeshi side formalization of documents on the pre-construction phase contracts.

By date, the contracts for surveys and design work on the plant have been signed. The construction contract is the third one and it provides for establishing a building machinery base on the site of Ruppur NPP and for organizing the construction work up to the first concrete.

N. Spasskiy who is cited in the report said: “Currently, the works of the pre-construction period are under way, which are planned to complete in 2016. Then, the active construction phase will start and will take 5 up to 6 years. This is a standard work schedule. The Russian side plans to start up Ruppur NPP in the early 2020s as previously scheduled.”

He also said that a representative of Atomstroyexport (part of ROSATOM system) has been in Bangladesh since last October, and a representative of ROSATOM has worked in the Russian embassy in Dhaka since this April. Besides, in 2014 Atomstroyexport plans to open its branch at Ruppur NPP. 

Earlier reports said Russia had made a decision to give a privileged loan of USD 500 million to Bangladesh. In addition, in 2015 Russia can decide to give a new privileged loan to Bangladesh.

ROSATOM was reported to have started construction of Ruppur NPP in Bangladesh in fall 2013. Russia will design, build and commission two units with 1000-megawatt VVER reactors on the Ruppur site (160 km from the capital of Bangladesh Dhaka, on the east bank of the Ganges River), and build the infrastructure.