Austrian company Strabag has filed a lawsuit before the International Court of Arbitration in Brussels, demanding payment of 40 million BAM from Elektroprivreda Bosne i Hercegovine for a dispute over the construction of the Vranduk power plant, Dnevni Avaz news portal reports.
Bosnian electricity company also considers itself as damaged because it has complied with its part of the contract and asks Strabag to pay them 30 million euros.
An Austrian company sued Bosnian Power Company over a dispute over the construction of the Vranduk hydroelectric power plant, whose work was halted in 2016, the Bosnian Electric Utility Company confirmed.
Strabag, who was the consortium leader on the 114 million BAM project, decided in early 2016 to terminate the contract because he demanded that he be provided with an additional 20 million BAM for the works, to which Elektroprivreda did not agree.
On July 2nd, it seemed like everything built at the site of the Vranduk hydroelectric power plant and Strabag workshops is done in vain after the decision is made that this company must return all to its original state.
The reason behind the decision lies in the fact that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) decided that the suspension of works and the return to the original state is the best solution because Strabag exited from the project, and Euro-asphalt and Koncar failed to change the contract items with the EBRD in order to continue the works.
At the beginning of February last year, the news portal Klix.ba wrote that Euro-Asfalt will enter the consortium with Koncar, instead of Strabag. However, the problem was made by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which was supposed to issue a license to change the contractor.
The cornerstone for the construction was officially put in September 2016, and the ceremony was attended by Bakir Izetbegovic, Fahrudin Radoncic and Denis Zvizdic. At that time, HE Vranduk was presented as a capital investment for the development of hydropower and the symbol of the “great construction site”.
The information from the court was confirmed by the president of the local community Vranduk Besim Begic, who explained that the decision was made four days ago.
He added that there are little probabilities that a hydropower plant will ever be built in Vranduk after the order received by Strabag.
“We can say that 70 percent of the hydropower plant will not be at this location never, and Strabag ordered everything to be taken out of the construction site and brought to its original state, after which there will be an arbitration, “Begic said.
Unofficially, Strabag will be in minus some 20 million BAM, and in the next period, a total weight of 310 tonnes steel piles will be removed.
