Russian ship with Rooppur nuclear plant materials docks at Haldia

The Russian ship, carrying Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project materials, finally got the approval from India to dock at the Haldia port of West Bengal after it had been deterred to anchor at Mongla due to US sanctions on the vessel.

The materials may be sent to the construction site at Ishwardi of Pabna by road from India, the Economic Times reports citing port officials concerned.

Bangladesh, however, has not received any official confirmation in this regard as of filing of this report.

"We have not yet received any official letter confirming that the sanctioned Russian ship will unload its consignment at the Haldia port in West Bengal and then send it to its destination by road," said Alok Chakraborty, chief administrative officer at the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Project.

"Since the beginning of the Ukraine-Russia war, around 20 ships carrying machinery and construction equipment for the Rooppur nuclear power plant have arrived in Bangladesh," he noted, adding that three more ships are expected this month.

When asked why Bangladesh could not allow the Russian ship which is under US sanction, but India did, Alok Chakraborty said that the foreign ministry would be the best authority to reply to this matter.

However, earlier in December, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told the media that "we have to honour the sanctions".

Foreign ministry officials, however, said there are two types of sanction – one is United Nations' sanction and the other one is from any particular country.

India is not obliged to follow the sanction imposed on a country by another country like the US sanction on Russia, the officials said.

Therefore, India has been openly defying US sanctions on Russian ships since the start of the war in Ukraine. All Indian ports are thus open to Russia-flagged vessels and they have been accepting consignments from Russia over the past year, with bilateral trade surging 300%.

On the other hand, the Russian ship was allowed to dock at the Indian port as the neighbouring country is assisting Bangladesh in constructing the NPP under a tri-party agreement with India-Russia-Bangladesh, reports the ET.

Meanwhile, the sanctioned Russian ship Sparta III was scheduled to dock at the port in the south-western part of the country and unload cargo destined for the Rooppur NPP in Pabna, hovered in the Bay of Bengal since late December.

But the authorities denied the ship to dock at the port after officials got a letter from the US Embassy in Dhaka saying that the ship was on a list of Russian ships sanctioned by the US.

It arrived at Bangladesh's Mongla port at the end of December 2022 with goods destined for the Rooppur NPP, Mongla Port Authority Secretary Kalachand Singh told local media.

"We have learned that the cargo from the vessel can be unloaded at the Haldia port in India's West Bengal. From there, another vessel could carry the consignment for the Rooppur power plant," he said.

Sadhan Kumar, operations officer of Khulna Conveyor Shipping Lines, told Bangladeshi media, "In the past shipments for Rooppur NPP were delivered by Russian and neutral, foreign-flagged, vessels at the Mongla port. After unloading the cargoes at the port, they would be taken to Rooppur."

The Engineering Division of Russia's Rosatom State Corporation is implementing the Rooppur project as the general designer and contractor.

The project will host two nuclear power units each with 1,200 Mw capacities. The latest generation 3+ Russian VVER 1200 reactor will be used for power generation, which complies with all international safety requirements.

As per the project design, the first unit of the power plant is scheduled to be connected to the grid by 2023 and the second unit by 2024.