Turkish Cengiz Holding has won the tender to build the marine hydro-technic structure for Turkey's first nuclear power plant in Akkuyu in the south of the country, the company announced on Tuesday.

The deal came on Tuesday. It will be a joint project with Rosatom, the Russian state atomic energy corporation, which signed an agreement with Turkey in 2010 to build and operate the country's first nuclear power plant.

The plant, which will have a life cycle of 60 years, will cost about $22 billion, and will be financed by Russia.

Construction will begin in 2016 and the planned four reactors are due to become fully operational in 2023.

Four firms gained the right last week to continue negotiations for the tender of the construction and design of Akkuyu's marine hydro technic structure estimated at about $1 billion.

According to the statement, Akkuyu's tender commission completed the evaluation of bids from companies and decided on Cengiz Holding's proposal.

Ongoing projects

The Turkish parliament approved an intergovernmental agreement last week in a session to build a nuclear power plant in the Turkish province of Sinop with Japan.

Construction of the $20 billion plant near the Black Sea, is expected to begin in 2017 to generate 40 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity every year with its four reactors.

The nuclear project will be constructed by a French-Japanese consortium with a share from Turkey's state-owned energy company EUAS.

The agreement between the Turkish and Japanese governments to build the plant was signed in 2013.

Cengiz Holding has 35 companies and their associates, expanding and growing with investments in major industries such as energy, mining and tourism.

Having made its major investments in the construction industry and mainly performing operations in infrastructure works comprising construction of highways, bridges, tunnels, dams, ports, railways, metro lines, airports, pipelines, power plants and industrial facilities, Cengiz Holding currently has ongoing projects valued at more than $10 billion.