joint committee on Rooppur nuke plant meets tomorrow
Russian sub-contractors failure to clear dues on agenda
The second meeting of the Joint Coordination Committee for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) project will be held in Dhaka on Wednesday. Led by Rosatoms deputy director general for international relations, Nikolai Spasskiy, the Russian delegation arrived in Dhaka yesterday, Rooppur power plant project director Mohammad Shawkat Akbar told The Independent.
Akbar said several issues, including the latest technical feasibility updates of the project, the financing and the progress of the sub-contractors work, would all be discussed at the meeting.
The parties will also discuss all the issues regarding cooperation in the construction of the nuclear power plant. The objective is to review plans for implementation of a general contract for the construction of the nuclear plant.
The projects joint committee was formed in 2014, under the framework of an inter-governmental agreement between Bangladesh and Russia concerning the cooperation in nuclear power plant construction in Bangladesh. The agreement was signed on November 2, 2011. The first meeting of the joint coordination committee was held on July 22 and 23, 2014, in Moscow.
Sources in the science and technology ministry said a part of the Russian delegation had already met senior officials from the ministry and the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC). At that meeting, the ministry had raised the issue of non-payment of dues by a Russian sub-contractor.
It is to be noted that the science and technology ministry had earlier received a written complaint from a Bangladeshi sub-contractor about the non-payment by another Russian sub-contractor.
Work at Rooppur plant site has been suspended because of non-payment of dues by the Russian company Goldenberg, which was appointed by JSC Atomstroyexport, the projects main contractor.
The company was terminated after discrepancies were found in Goldenbergs work. But they left Bangladesh without paying the dues of Bangladeshi sub-contractors that worked under the company.
The ministry sources said officials from Atomstroyexport informed them that Goldenberg was terminated due to their negligence in supervision activities. The issue of non-payment of dues would be sorted out at the official meeting of the joint steering committee, they added.
