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V S Chandrasekar in Moscow
India and Russia on Tuesday signed a memorandum for constructing two atomic power plants of thousand megawatt capacity each in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu at an estimated cost of Rs 140 billion.
A joint statement issued after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin said both sides would continue their cooperation in the peaceful uses of atomic energy as well as outer space.
The two sides also agreed to hold expert-level discussions on a possible setting up of an institutional mechanism to carry forward cooperation in energy security.
The construction of Kudankulum plant was agreed 13 years ago, but abandoned following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Tuesday's talks were to determine how many reactors would be set up at the Kudankulam plant, with the first unit of 1000 mw expected to be completed by December 2007. The final contract for this project was to be signed by this year-end.
PTI
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