Electrical equipment, motors, and other machinery parts of about nine consignments, weighing around 18 tonnes, imported for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant were destroyed in the fire at a cargo village section of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on Saturday.
Md Nurul Islam, a managing partner of Rusani Enterprise, responsible for clearing the Rooppur power plant consignment, confirmed the loss on Monday.
According to the businesses and airport authorities, a huge quantity of imported goods, documents, samples, and raw materials for the country鈥檚 major industries stored at the cargo village, was burned, though the total extent of the damage is yet to be determined.
Nurul Islam also said that among nine consignments, eight were completely burnt, while another one was partially damaged.聽
The equipment and machine parts arrived at the HSIA six days ago and were聽waiting for a No Objection Certificate from the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission.
鈥榃e got the NOC on Thursday. As the customs鈥� activities usually halt on Friday and Saturday, the goods were scheduled to clear on Sunday. However, the devastating fire destroyed the consignments before beginning the clearing process,鈥� he added.
He also said that they were working on counting the valuation of the goods, the actual weight, and the potential losses, which could be completed soon.
Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant is the country鈥檚 single biggest project under the Russian credit and technical assistance worth around $11.38 billion.
Equipped with two VVER-1200 reactors of a total 2400 MW capacity, the RNPP is expected to start test run in December.
The fire, which raged in the cargo village near gate no 8 of the HSIA, broke out at about 02:30pm on Saturday, and was brought under control at about 10:00 pm on the same day and could be doused at about 4:30pm on Monday.
