With Prime Minister Narendra Modi in St Petersburg, India and Russia today signed an agreement on the setting up the Units 5 and 6 of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu.
The General Framework Agreement and Credit protocol for Units 5 and 6 of the Kudankulam nuclear plant are seen as a major outcome of the annual summit talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We will strive to build an ‘energy bridge’ between our states and expand bilateral relations in all areas of energy cooperation, including nuclear, hydrocarbon, hydel and renewable energy sources and in improving energy efficiency,” said the vision document.
PM Modi, after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the signing of the agreement for the last two units of the Kudankulam nuclear plant will further strengthen the ties between the two countries. “Energy cooperation is an important aspect of our bilateral relation, Kudankulam plant is a testimony to that claim,” PM Modi said in a joint statement with Mr Putin this evening. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said the Russian government was lending India $4.2 billion from next year for a 10-year period to help cover construction costs, reported Reuters.
The nuclear reactors will be built by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) and Russia’s Atomstroyexport company, a subsidiary of Rosatom, the regulatory body of the Russian nuclear complex. Each of the two units will have a capacity to produce 1,000 MW of power.