Banpu's Kitadin cancels resettlement plan

PT Kitadin, a coal mining company partly owned by Thailand-based corporation Banpu Plc, has cancelled its plan to resettle about 3,800 residents living near its mining location in Kertabuana village of Kutai Kartanegara regency in East Kalimantan, Kompas reported on Friday.

Kitadin's spokesman Indra Nugraha confirmed that the company had decided to cancel the resettlement plan after the company's study showed that the cost of the planned resettlement would be much higher than the revenues to be generated from the coal potentials in the area.

"The resettlement program is not economically feasible," he said.

The cancellation of the resettlement plan, however, has disappointed many residents who said that they had sold their rice fields after the company agreed to move them to other area. (*)