ROOPPUR/Bangladesh/, November 30. /TASS/. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has thanked Russia for its assistance in building the Rooppur NPP, the country’s first nuclear power plant.
"I again express gratitude to the government and people of Russia for the continuous support," the prime minister said at the official ceremony of the first concrete placement at the construction site of energy unit number 1 in the Pabna district in western Bangladesh.
The prime minister recalled that when her government took power in 2009 and decided to resume the Rooppur NPP project, which had been discussed since the 1960s, Russia agreed to help to implement it.
"As a true friend, Russia not only provided us with material and moral support during our fight for independence in 1971, but also took part in rebuilding Bangladesh destroyed by the war after we gained independence. I once again express deep gratitude to the people of Russia," she said.
Director General of the Rosatom state nuclear corporation Alexey Likhachev told the ceremony: "We will do the construction work here in Bangladesh with the same love and attention as we build for ourselves in Russia."
"I have no doubt that many thousands of MW, to be born here, will give impetus to the economy and give a new quality to the industrial development of Bangladesh, and certainly, a new quality of people’s lives," he stressed.
Likhachev noted that Thursday’s ceremony of the first concrete placement at the construction site at the Rooppur NPP is bringing a new quality to Bangladesh, which will become a nuclear state. "Our cooperation in the atomic field only underlines the level of trust and high political cooperation between our countries," Likhachev said.
The ceremony was also attended by Bangladeshi Minister of Science and Technology Yafes Osman and President of the Group of Companies ASE (part of Rosatom) Valery Limarenko. The concrete placement symbolizes the beginning of an active construction phase.
Two units of the Rooppur nuclear power plant, with a capacity of 1,200 MW each, to be built with Russia’s assistance, are planned to be put into operation in 2023 and 2024.