Serbia, RS to build hydroelectric plant

Serbia, RS to build hydroelectric plant

Working groups from Serbia and Bosnian Serb entity will confirm the rest of the details over the next two weeks.

The Buk Bijela plant will be built on the Drina River.

“Today we agreed to contact Montenegro’s top politicians to try and get them to enter into the investment with us,” RS Economy, Energy and Development Minister Rajko Ubiparip said.

“If they continue to reject participation, then we will discuss building a hydroelectric plant with an output power of 1,500 megawatts,” he said.

The project is set to be financed by the Serbian and RS electric power public enterprises.

However, there have been announcements that there was a great deal of interest shown by others, including Czech electric companies.

The building of the Buk Bijela plant, with an output of 550 megawatts, has been planned for several years now, as a joint project of Serbia, RS and Montenegro.

The project was halted last year when the Montenegrin parliament passed a declaration for the protection of the Tara River, which includes a ban on the plant's construction.

The Drina River emerges from the confluence of the Tara and Piva rivers.

The construction would not be possible without sinking part of the Tara Gorge, the deepest canyon in Europe, at 78 kilometers in length and 1,300 meters at its deepest.

The canyon is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is a part of Durmitor national park.

Montenegrin officials say that they will probably not participate in any new discussions related to the building of the hydroelectric plant.