Moscow: India and Russia have signed three contracts worth $ 1 billion for the construction of Kudankulam nuclear power station in Tamil Nadu.

"Besides the shipment of equipment and deployment of Russian experts at the construction site in India, these contracts also include the supply of third-party products, for which tenders would be invited by Russia from foreign vendors," Yevgany Rodin of "Atomstroiexport" corporation was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass.

Russia will provide technical credit to India equivalent to 54 per cent of the total cost of the $ 2.6 billion project in the form of the equipment and services, under the framework agreement signed recently, it said.

Moscow is also to supply nuclear fuel to Kudankulam for 40 years at the fixed cost of $ 157 million annually.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by secretary of Department of Atomic Energy Anil Kakodkar and Russian Atomic Energy Minister Rumyantsev in November 2001 during Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Moscow visit.

To bring down the cost of construction, India, which has already built 14 indigenous nuclear power plants, will do all the construction work itself.

The Russian experts will only supervise at every stage under the $ 57-million detailed project report prepared two-and-half years ago, it said.

PTI