HO CHI MINH, Vietnam, November 19. /TASS/. The launch of the first unit of India’s Kudankulam nuclear power plant built by Russian nuclear power corporation Rosatom has been delayed until mid-January 2015 from late December as was earlier planned, Nikolay Drozdov, director of Rosatom’s department for international business, said at a forum Wednesday.

The unit was shut down in September for diagnostics and repairs of its turbine generator.

The decision to delay the unit’s launch was made by the Indian side, Drozdov said.

Rosatom’s unit Atomstroyexport has been building the Kudankulam plant in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu under a contract signed in 1988. The plant's first unit was launched in July 2013, while construction of the second unit is currently at the final stage.

In Russia, Rosatom plans to launch a 1,000-megawatt unit at the Rostovskaya-3 nuclear plant and a fourth unit with a fast-neuron reactor at the Beloyarskaya nuclear plant this year, Drozdov also said.