Construction of PLTA Asahan III to start next year
Friday, October 23 2015 - 01:08 AM WIB
State-owned electricity company PT PLN plans to start construction of the 2x87 MW PLTA Asahan III hydro power plant in North Sumatra early next year, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Friday.
The project has been stalled due to difficulties in obtaining permit for the use of 30 hectares of forest area in Batu Mamak, Toba Samosir.
The paper quoted PLN Director Nasri Sebayang as saying that the Ministry of Forestry and Environmental Affairs has recently issued the required forest land use permit for the project. The paper said that the ministry issued the permit mid this year following pressure from Vice President Jusuf Kalla to resolve problems hampering power plant projects in the country.
Nasri said that the PLTA Asahan III will help resolve the lingering power shortage problem in North Sumatra. (*)