SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), April 23 (SeeNews) – Bosnian power utility Elektroprivreda BiH [SAJ:JPESR] said on Monday the upper house of the parliament of the Federation entity has given the green light to the signing of a deal with a Chinese tie-up for the construction of a 450 MW unit at the existing Tuzla thermal power plant (TPP).
Following the decision of the House of Peoples of the Federation parliament, the lower house, the House of Representatives has to give their approval to the deal, Elektroprivreda BiH said in a statement.
The consortrium comprising China Gezhouba Group Company Ltd and China Energy Engineering Group Guangdong Electric Power Design Institute Co. Ltd. was selected in 2014 by the Federation government as the preferred bidder for the construction of Unit 7 at Tuzla TPP.
In November last year, EPBiH signed a loan deal with China's Ex-Im Bank for the construction of the plant.
The total cost of the project is 722 million euro ($883.3 million), of which Ex-Im Bank will lend 613 million euro for a period of 20 years, with a five-year grace, EPBiH said at the time.
According to Bosnian media reports, European Union credit institutions have declined to finance the project as it fails to meet the bloc's strict environmental requirements.
The Federation is one of two autonomous entities that form Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is the Serb Republic.
($=0.817330 euro)