Govt extends deadline for power plant bidding

Government extended a deadline for the submission of bids to build 10 coal-fired power plants in Java, the country?s most populous island, to get more participants, a government official said.

Contractors have until Oct. 4, from an earlier deadline of Sept. 20, to submit completed documents for their bids, Yogo Pratomo, head of the government?s team that?s supervising the application process and construction of the plants told reporters in Jakarta Monday.

?We want to get as many bidders as possible with this extension,? Pratomo said after meeting Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

As many as 43 firms and joint ventures have passed the pre-qualification tender for the contracts to build the 10,000 MW coal fired power plant projects under the so-called ?Crash Program?.

Chinese firms, either individually or in joint ventures with local companies, dominate the list of the companies that passed the pre-qualification process, unveiled by the government on Monday. The firms include among others Chengda Engineering Corp, Dongfeng Electric Corporation, Hubei First Electric Power, China National Electrical Equipment Corp.

The list also includes several Japanese firms such as Itochu, Marubeni and Mitsubishi. (*)