Talking to reporters in Tehran on Wednesday, Ahmad Fayyazbakhsh, deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said the nuclear power plant will become operational in 2016 in the southwestern Iranian town of Darkhovin, IRNA reported.

“All stages of the plant’s construction will be overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency,“ he said.

He also said the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant would be commissioned in late October.

The official added that the plant would start generating electricity shortly after its inauguration.

He noted that the plant__Iran’s first indigenous nuclear plant__will cost about $1.2 billion.

Fayyazbakhsh stated that the construction of Bushehr plant is 93.67 percent complete, noting that of the total of 50,000 tons of equipment, 48,100 tons have already been transferred to the plant.

On Monday, Russia completed fuel deliveries for the plant and said it would ’ideally’ go on line this year.

Fayyazbakhsh, who is also the managing director of Nuclear Power Production and Development Company of Iran, an affiliate of the AEOI, added that the remaining 1,900 tons of equipment would be transferred to the plant in the next several months.