Buk Bijela Hydroelectric Power Station

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said on Thursday Serbia had completed the preparatory works for a project to build a Buk Bijela hydropower plant in collaboration with Republika Srpska.

The minister said completing all environmental impact studies and selecting the main contractor was what remained to be done.

After a joint session of the Serbian government and the government of the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska, in East Sarajevo, the two prime ministers, Ana Brnabic and Radovan Viskovic, on Monday laid the foundation stone for the construction of a hydroelectric plant that environmentalists have condemned as a threat to the river Drina.

The District Court in Banja Luka, administrative centre of the mainly Serbian Republika Srpska entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, RS, has cancelled the environmental permit for the planned Buk Bijela hydropower plant on the river Drina in Bosnia, the Aarhus Resource Center said on Thursday, following the court's May 13 ruling in favour of the Center's complaint.