BANJA LUKA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), July 7 (SeeNews) – The energy ministry of Bosnia's Serb Republic said it has concluded a memorandum of cooperation on the construction of Buk Bijela hydro power plant (HPP) with state-owned China National Aero-technology International Engineering Corporation.
The document defines the possibilities for cooperation between the entity government and the Chinese company on the HPP project, the energy ministry said in a statement on Thursday following the signing.
The representative of China National Aero-technology International Engineering Corporation said the company has the full support of the Chinese government to participate in this project and others on the territory of the Serb Republic, according to the statement.
In June 2016, a consortium led by the power utility of the Serb Republic signed a 50-year concession contract with the entity's energy ministry to build and operate the 93.52 MW Buk Bijela HPP on the river Drina.
At the time, the ministry said the project is worth 382.4 million marka ($223.1 million/195.5 million euro) and the HPP is expected to produce some 332.3 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year. Buk Bijela will be Bosnia's largest HPP in terms of installed capacity, reservoir size and mean outputs, it was also said.
The implementation of the project was postponed several times due to scrutiny by environmentalist organisations and NGOs from Bosnia and Montenegro who fear it will destroy the canyon of the Tara river which flows between the two countries.
The Serb Republic is one of Bosnia's two autonomous entities, the other is the Federation.
(1 euro=1.95583 Bosnian marka)