The delivery of uranium fuel from Russia for the second unit of the Rooppur NPP under construction in Bangladesh has been delayed because the cargo aircraft did not receive required permission to use Pakistan’s airspace.
Bangladesh’s Minister for Science and Technology, Faqir Mahbub Anam, confirmed that the cargo flight, scheduled to land on 24 September, could not proceed as planned. The exact reasons behind Pakistan withholding the overflight clearance remain unknown to Bangladeshi authorities. Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology Sheikh Mohammad Tauhidul Islam said all preparations had been completed at the airport to receive the fuel.
Following the disruption, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom revised the logistics schedule. According to an official statement from Rosatom’s Bangladesh office, the shipments will now begin arriving in Bangladesh in the first week of October 2026 and will continue through December to conclude by the end of the year.
The exact details of the revised route have not been publicly detailed by Rosatom, but officials have confirmed that the shipments will resume via an alternative route. Prior to the disruption, the typical flight path for these specialised air cargo shipments from Russia to Bangladesh passed sequentially through the airspace of Kazakhstan (and sometimes Azerbaijan or Turkmenistan), Pakistan (the point of disruption) and India.
While Rosatom representatives stated that they will bypass the restriction using an alternative flight path, Bangladeshi Science and Technology Minister Faqir Mahbub Anam also noted that because Pakistan has historically granted overflight clearance for previous shipments (such as those for unit 1), the current issue may be a temporary oversight or procedural gap.
The first consignment of low-enriched uranium fuel for the first unit arrived in Bangladesh from Russia in October 2023. A total of 164 new fuel assemblies. produced at Rosatom’s Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant, were transported to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on a Russian cargo aircraft. The fuel was subsequently transported to the Rooppur project site through a secured “green corridor” in radiation-resistant containers, with members of the Bangladesh Army and law enforcement agencies providing security. Fuel loading unit 1 began in April.
The Rooppur plant is being built by Rosatom on the eastern bank of the Ganges River in the Pabna district of Bangladesh, about 160 km northwest of Dhaka. It will comprise two VVER-1200 reactors. In November 2011, Russia and Bangladesh signed an inter-governmental agreement on cooperation in the construction of the NPP, and in mid-December 2015 a general contract worth $12.65bn was signed. Construction of unit 1 began in November 2017 and unit 2 in July 2018. The plant’s design life is 60 years, with the possibility of extending its operating life for another 20 years.
