Bangladesh's Finance Ministry has allocated a budget of $42.33 million for the second phase of construction of the Rooppur nuclear plant, Energy Bangla reported on 4 December, citing sources from the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Rooppur NPP, with two VVER-1200 reactors, is being constructed in accordance with a general contract signed in December 2015 with Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom. First concrete for Rooppur 1 was poured in November 2017, and for unit 2 in July. Operation is scheduled for 2023 and 2024, respectively. The general contractor is Atomstroyexport (the engineering division of Rosatom). Rooppur 1 is referenced to unit 1 at Russia's Novovoronezh-II NPP.
A total of $13.08 billion has been allocated for the project under the Annual Development Programme for fiscal 2018-19, $1.1billion more than the previous year's allocation for the same project, the paper said. The government previously sanctioned $77.22 million for the first phase of the RNPP project. So far a total of $1.2 billion has been allocated for the project. Russia is giving 90% of the total project cost as a loan.
