Russia has asked India to shift the site of a nuclear power plant at Haripur in eastern India, for which Russia has constructed two reactors, the Times of India paper reported on Monday.

Russia is concerned that protests over the construction of the plant are becoming political, the paper said. A local opposition party has recently joined local fishermen in protests against a possible rise in the temperature of seawater in the Bay of Bengal.

The concerns have forced the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Rosatom, to ask the Department of Atomic Energy of India (DAE) to consider another site for the plant.

The construction of the plant was given environmental clearance in January.

A source in the Indian government said the DAE commission is monitoring the situation.

The Indian government has not commented on the Russian request yet.

Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko said previously that a total of 12 reactors were to be built at Haripur and a second site, Kudankulam, in eastern India. A third site would be allotted soon, Kiriyenko said, bringing the total number of reactors to 16.

Atomstroyexport, Russia's nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, has been building two reactors for the plant since 2002 in line with a 1988 deal between India and the Soviet Union and an addendum signed 10 years later.

NEW DELHI, August 23 (RIA Novosti)