A deal reached to continue stalled high voltage project in Java

The construction of the stalled high-voltage electricity transmission line projects linking East Java and West Java would soon resume following the settlement of the dispute between state electricity company PT PLN and local firm PT Bukaka Teknik Utama, local papers said Thursday.

PLN president Eddie Widiono Suwondo claimed that PLN and Bukaka had reached an understanding to settle their dispute out of the court, but Eddie refused to go further into details and only said: "If there has been an understanding why should we continue to settle this through the court?"

But, PLN's marketing and distribution director Tunggono explained that PLN had agreed to give some compensations to Bukaka in the form of projects. PLN agreed to grant Bukaka some maintenance works for its diesel plants and contracts to supply spare parts for its power plants

Bukaka sued PLN and the government last year over the latter's move to cancel its winning of the contract to build the Klaten-Tasikmalaya power line, which is a crucial part for the transmission of power from East Java to West Java.

After cancelling Bukaka's contract, PLN then awarded the contract to Swiss firm Asea Brown Bovery (ABB)through a tendering process, but the Swiss firm refused to start works until the legal dispute between Bukaka, PLN and the government was settled.

Bukaka has won the battle in the district court and the appeal level, and was confident that it would win this case in the Supreme Court as well.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro suggested recently that the government was pursuing out of court settlement with Bukaka to solve their dispute so that the construction of the transmission line could be completed on time and the transmission line could transport electricity from East Java to West Java in year 2004 at the latest. (*)