The Gorna Arda hydropower complex project has not been frozen despite the fact that the launch of construction works has been delayed for almost a year, according to Werner Casagrande, Chairperson of the Management Board of Hydropower Company Gorna Arda AD.

In a Tuesday interview for the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) Casagrande said that they needed to do more research to be clear about what had to be built.

“Although it may appear that the project has been frozen, there is a lot of preparatory work that remains unseen and yet has to be completed before the end result is seen,” he declared.

“We are now collaborating with a number of Bulgarian institutions such as the Environment Ministry and the Regional Development Ministry to clarify the legislation related to the implementation of the project,” Casagrande stated.

“Although it may appear that not much is happening, we are actually working and we have not lost out optimism that we will bring the project to a successful end,” he noted.

Casagrande also said that the other investor in the project, Bulgaria’s National Electric Company (NEK), which had a stake of 30%, would not need to allocate funding for the project at this stage.

“EVN is currently ready to finance the development of the project with its own resources so at this stage it is not necessary for NEK to contribute money to the project,” he informed.

The cost of the project is still unclear as the sum of EUR 350 M is the price tag of the old version of the scheme envisaging 3 very large dams, according to BNR.