TIRANA, Oct. 20 – The Albanian government will pay Croatian company Dalekovod Euro 6.8 million in compensation for delays in permits by Albanian authorities in the construction of an Albania-Montenegro interconnection line.
The deal is confirmed by Dalekovod which says it has signed a settlement deal with Albania’s state-run OST electricity transmission operator over the 2007-2011 project to build the 400 kV German-funded Tirana-Podgorica interconnection line.
The Croatian company had filed a complaint with the Vienna International Arbitral Centre over delays by Albanian authorities in issuing the necessary permits, causing a three-year delay in the project’s completion.
Having already won Euro 7.5 million in compensation, the Croatian engineering company was seeking 12 million euros in an appeal to the initial ruling, local media quoted sources from OST transmission operator.
“The settlement does not only bring the financial compensation, but it also, given the serious presence of Dalekovod in the region and especially in Kosovo, opens the possibility of new deals in Albania that have been planned for the next period,” said Dalekovod in a statement.
Back in 2011, Croatia’s Dalekovod was announced the winner to build the Albania-Kosovo interconnection line, but the tender was cancelled and the contract was awarded to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Energoinvest which had bid a lower amount after a new tender in 2013, causing the project’s delay.
The Albanian government has signed out-of-court deals with Czech Republic’s CEZ over the revocation of its distribution operator licence in Albania in 2013 and U.S.-based Rapiscan over a controversial customs scanning concession this year, avoiding penalties by arbitration courts.
