REJAUL KARIM BYRON and AHMED HUMAYUN KABIR TOPU, Pabna

The test run of the Rooppur nuclear power plant may start by the end of 2025 after a year’s delay as the gridline on the Padma river is taking longer than anticipated to materialise.

Initially, the Awami League-led government had planned to conduct the test run of the 1,200 MW unit-1 by December last year.

Earlier in January, Finance and Science and Technology Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed told The Daily Star that ROSATOM had conveyed to the government that they were trying to conduct the test run by April.

When Alexey Likhachev, the director general of ROSATOM last week paid a visit to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, he could not say anything specific about the test run.

“The dry run of the project is going on while the test run will commence soon,” Likhachev said.

While 85 percent of the construction work for unit-1 has already been completed, the subsidiary projects, which included developing a high-frequency telecommunications system and setting up gridlines over the Padma and the Jamuna rivers, are taking longer than expected, Ahmed said.

While completion of the gridline over the Jamuna river will take time, the government was trying to complete the gridline over the Padma river soon.

The test run will commence once the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is the global watchdog for any atomic energy-related power plant, visits the project site and certify it, Ahmed added.

The gridline on the Padma river will take some time, said Md Delwar Hossain, the chief engineer of the Rooppur power plant project.

As of January, the physical progress of the gridline on Padma river is 85 percent, according to Hossain.

However, apart from those under construction, there are two completed gridlines that could be used for the test turn.

One is from Rooppur to Baghabari and the other is from Rooppur to Bogura.

However, Russia emphasised using the Padma river gridline for the test run, Hossain added.

The project for the gridlines on the Padma and Jamuna rivers was approved in 2018 by the A total The

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