Staff Reporter :The Cabinet on Monday approved the draft of the Nuclear Power Plant Ordinance-2015, which will facilitate to set up of nuclear power plants in the country.The approval was given at the regular weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at the Prime Minister’s Office with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.Briefing reporters after the meeting at the Secretariat, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the Ministry of Science and Technology placed the proposal as an ordinance since parliament is not in session now.He said since nuclear power plant projects are high-tech and complicated ones, it is very tough to run and operate those under the Company’s Act. Under the ordinance, he said, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) will be the owner organisation while a company, Nuclear Power Plant Company Bangladesh Limited, will be formed as an operating organisation. The Cabinet Secretary said the ordinance would ensure transparency, accountability and better management in the process of setting up of nuclear power plants as this was done following the guidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).The President will promulgate the ordinance soon, he said, adding it will later be transformed into an act through passing the related bill in parliament. Musharraf said the draft proposal was first placed before the Cabinet as a bill on May 4 this year.He said the company will also have a Board with the Science and Technology Ministry Secretary as its chairman, while the chairman of the BAEC as its director. Besides, there will be minimum seven and maximum 12 directors in the Board to be appointed by the government. He also said the previous Project Director of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Project will be the first Managing Director of the Nuclear Power Plant Company Bangladesh Limited. He said the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project would be implemented with financial and technical support from the Russian government to generate 1000 megawatt of electricity initially.The initial duration of the project is from March 2013 to June 2017 and it would go into operation by 2021 involving Tk 5087.81 crore with project aid of Tk 4000 crore from the Russian government. The meeting was apprised of the participation of Bangladesh delegation, headed by Road Transport and Bridges Minister to India and Bhutan in May and June this year. It was also apprised of the participation of country’s delegation at the 4th Bangladesh-Malaysia joint commission meeting held in Malaysia in May and the 42nd council of the OIC held at Kuwait, the participation of the negotiation team on Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant in Moscow in June and the participation at the International Conference on Protection of Civilians held at Rwanda in May.Ministers and State Ministers attended the meeting. Also concerned secretaries were present in the meeting.
