Governor hopes Kayan hydro power plant project to start construction this year
Thursday, March 9 2017 - 01:51 AM WIB
Petromindo|Thomas
North Kalimantan Governor Irianto Lambrie hopes construction of the planned Kayan hydro power plant project in the province can start this year as it has long been delayed.
Irianto told Petromindo.com on Wednesday that the remaining obstacle to the project, whose ground breaking was made three years ago, is related to technical matters on the relocation of villagers from the project site.
He explained that the area (about 2,000 hectares) where the villagers will be relocated is still administratively considered as forest area although there are no longer threes there. As such, the provincial spatial zoning plan has to be revised. He said that with the support of the central government, this should no longer be a serious problem.
PT Kayan Hidro Energy (KHE) plans to develop a hydro power plant in Peso District, Bulungan Regency, North Kalimantan, taking advantage of the local Kayan River.
Andrew, President Director of KHE, was quoted by Tribunnews.com as saying Wednesday that residents of two local villages have agreed to be relocated to pave the way for the company to build the water dam.
He, however, said that the company has yet to complete discussions with state-owned electricity firm PT PLN among others on the distribution scheme of the electricity output from the planned power plant. Once agreement has been reached with PLN, he added, the company will be ready to start construction process.
Andrew said that in the first phase, KHE will develop a dam with capacity to produce electricity of up to 900 MW. He added that the company will allocate US$5 billion to finance the project.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak