Albania to pick builder of electricity line to Montenegro

TIRANA, March 12 – Albania is expected to pick the builder of a 400 KV electricity transmission line to neighboring Montenegro, worth 44 million euro, by the end of the first half of 2007, an Albanian economy and energy ministry official said on Monday.
“The tender is ongoing and we expect that it will be completed in the first half of the year,” the ministry’s strategic planning head, Bujar Leka, on the two-day Energy Streams in the Regional and European Aspect Conference. The project is for the construction of a 157-kilometre power transmission line between Albania’s capital Tirana and Montenegro’s capital Podgorica, of which 128 km are on Albanian territory.
“The Tirana-Podgorica power line is estimated to cost some 44 million euro ($57.9 million) and is financed by Germany through the [state-run bank for reconstruction and development] KfW,” Leka said. The project, including upgrade works on associated substations, is divided into two lots – from Tirana to the border with Montenegro and from the border to Podgorica.
The power line is designed to be connected with a planned transmission line between Tirana and the nearby town of Elbasan, both in central Albania.
“The Tirana-Elbasan project has an estimated value of 30 million euro, which will be funded by Italy,” Leka said and added that the project is still under preparation. “Both projects are due to be completed by 2009,” Leka added.