Construction works on Vranduk hydropower plant (HPP Vranduk) have been stalled. According to local media reports, the consortium comprising Austrian Strabag and Croatian Končar has delayed in delivering project documentation while trying to revise upwards the cost of the project, proposal to which the supervisory body was reluctant.

The project of state power utility EPBiH on the Bosna river in Zenica municipality is worth EUR 74 million, whereas the utility invests EUR 11 million from its own funds and EUR 63 million is invested by EBRD and EIB through the loans. Once constructed this run-of-river diversion facility with a number of units functioning as a whole will have installed capacity of 19.63 MW, while the planned annual production will be 96 GWh.

Construction of the HPP Vranduk was officially launched on September 8 last year. The dynamics have been slowed down by the consortium in charge of project execution comprising Austrian Strabag and Croatian Končar engineering since they failed to deliver the project documentation of the main project on time.

According to information from EPBiH, two out of three packages of project documentation have been delivered by now. As a consequence to the delays, the construction permit for this project has not been delivered yet.

Allegedly, main reason for the delay is in the increase of project cost in the amount of EUR 6.5 million and attempt of Strabag to amend the project documentation in parallel with the construction works.