United News of Bangladesh

Postal, Telecommunications and Information Technology, and Science and Technology Minister Faqir Mahbub Anam on Thursday said efforts are underway to supply around 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity from the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant to the national grid by November. "We are making all-out efforts to supply nearly 300MW of electricity from the first reactor of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant to the national grid by this coming November. In addition, we plan to load nuclear fuel into the second reactor around June next year," said the minister. Underlining the priority attached to the project, Minister Anam noted that as the 1,200MW capacity mega project is a flagship initiative of Russia's state atomic energy corporation, Rosatom, the Russian side is giving it top priority. Teams of experts sent three months ago are working round the clock to meet the project targets. During his interaction, the minister also addressed recent queries regarding the mobile financial service provider 'Nagad'. Clarifying the government’s stance, he stated that the government has no plan or intention to sell Nagad. He highlighted that Nagad is currently operating in a profitable state and assured that steps will be taken to make the platform even more modern and profitable in the future.  

Three foreign ships,including a Russian flag carrier, importing machinery and goods for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and Bangabandhu Rail Bridge have arrived at Mongla port. The unloading of the consignments from the ships has already started. The Panama flag carrier, MV QI XIA, carrying goods weighing 3,352 metric tonnes for the Bangabandhu Rail Bridge, docked at the port’s jetty-7 on Sunday morning, the Mongla Port Authority said. Another Panama flag carrier, LIBERTY HARVEST, carrying machinery weighing 4,716 metric tonnes for Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, docked at the port’s jetty-7 at the same time. The Russian flag carrier, MV KAMILLA, carrying goods weighing 3,633 metric tonnes for the power plant, docked at the port’s jetty-9 at noon. Md Kamruzzaman, shipping agent for the Liberty Harvest, said it will take four days to unload the consignment for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant. Also read: Fourth Russian shipment for Rooppur arrives at Mongla Port After unloading, the machinery from the ship will be taken by sea to Rooppur Power Plant, he added. A total of 14,475 packages weighing 4,716 metric tons of power plant machinery were transported by this ship. Sadhan Kumar Chakrabarty, local shipping agent of MV Kamilla, said that the ship transported a total of 5,506 packages of goods for the power plant. Most of the goods for the country's ongoing megaprojects are being imported through this port on a priority basis. Modern methods of unloading goods, a skilled workforce, and reduced time all contributed to the port's increased activity.  

Russia is continuing to deliver uninterrupted equipment shipment for the Rooppur nuclear power plant (NPP) in Bangladesh. A cargo ship with a new batch of equipment for Rooppur NPP on board has left the Russian port of St Petersburg recently, Rosatom said in a statement on Tuesday. Rosatom, working as a Russian contractor for the Rooppur NPP, said the equipment for units 1 and 2 of Bangladesh’s first-ever nuclear power plant includes 1,300 various items weighing 1,573 tonnes. The cargo is expected to be delivered at the NPP site in June, according to the statement. “Despite the international situation, our division being the general contractor for the Rooppur NPP construction fulfills all its obligations, both in terms of construction and supply of equipment,” said Alexey Deriy, director, Rooppur NPP construction project. Rooppur NPP will be equipped with two Russian VVER-1200 reactors with a total capacity of 2,400 MW. This is an evolutionary generation III+ design which fully complies with all the international safety requirements. The engineering division of Rosatom State Corporation is the general designer and general contractor of the project, said Rosatom. According to Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, the implementing authority of the project, the first unit of the power plant was scheduled to start operations in 2022 and the second unit in 2024. But recently the first unit’s operation deadline was rescheduled to 2024 and second unit a year later.