(MENAFN- Trend News Agency ) Construction work at the Egypt's El Dabaa nuclear power plant (NPP) can provisionally start in 2020, Chief Executive Officer of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom Alexei Likhachev told reporters on Wednesday, TASS reports.

If we proceed from the schedule initiated by presidents [of Russia and Egypt] on December 11, this will provisionally take place in 2020," Likhachev said.

Onsite preparatory work has already been underway, the top manager added.

Acts on entry of the El Dabaa NPP construction projects into effect were signed on December 11, 2017 in Cairo in presence of presidents of Russia and Egypt.

The two countries signed an inter-governmental agreement to construct the first nuclear power plant in El Dabaa in November 2015. The facility consisting of four power units with 1,200 MW capacity each, will be built near the city of El Alamein on Egypt's northern coast, 3.5 kilometers away from the Mediterranean Sea. The launch of the first unit is expected in 2024. The total cost of the project is estimated at $30 bln.

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