By RIA Novosti
New Delhi : Russia and India initialed an agreement Tuesday to construct another four reactors for the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in southern India, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said.
“An agreement to build additional reactors for the Kundankulam NPP has been initialed. The first two reactors are being completed,” said Zhukov, part of a delegation accompanying Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov on a visit to India designed to boost bilateral trade and investment.
Atomstroyexport, Russia’s nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, has been building two reactors for the Kudankulam plant in the southern province of Tamil Nadu since 2002 in line with a 1988 deal between India and the then Soviet Union and an addendum signed ten years later.
Russia will supply nuclear fuel for the reactors and re-export the spent fuel.
The Russian delegation, which includes economics minister Elvira Nabiullina, is taking part in a trade and investment forum on February 12-13.
Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, speaking after talks with his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, Tuesday said “the level of Russian-Indian political dialogue” allows the two countries to double mutual trade that currently stands at $5-$6 billion a year by 2010.
The Indian premier echoed the assessment adding he hopes talks in India will yield new joint oil projects in Russia, India and third countries.
India plans to build 16,000 km (9,940 miles) of oil and gas pipelines at home. Russian companies have shown interest in the projects.
India’s ONGC is already participating in the Sakhalin I oil and gas project off Russia’s Pacific Coast, whose recoverable reserves estimated at 2.3 billion barrels of oil and 485 billion cubic meters of natural gas.