Govt to take over land acquisition process for Batang power plant

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Chairul Tanjung said that the central government will take over the completion of land acquisition process for the planned giant coal-fired power plant in Batang, Central Java, if the local governments could not complete the process by the end of this year.

?We?ll communicate this with the regent and governor. We?ll give them another chance, if not we?ll take over,? Chairul said as quoted by Bisnis Indonesia Thursday.

Of the total 226 hectares of land required for the development of the 2x1,000 MW coal fired power plant in Batang Regency, Central Java, about 20 ha has yet to be acquired due to various problems including owners demanding excessively high price and protest from environmental activists.

The US$4 billion Batang power plant, dubbed to be the largest in Southeast Asia, is seen crucial to help avoid future electricity crisis in Java, was initially projected to be completed in 2016, but then coordinating minister for the economy Hatta Rajasa said that the completion of the project had been postponed to 2018 due to various problems including land acquisition.

The Batang power plant will be built by PT Bhimasena Power Indonesia, a consortium comprising Jakarta listed coal giant PT Adaro Energy Tbk, and Japan?s J-Power Energy Power Development Co. Ltd. and Itochu Corp. The power plant will sell electricity it produces to state-owned electricity company PT PLN under a 25-year-contract.

Aside from land acquisition issue, there has also been protest from local residents and environmentalists over serious environmental impact of the project. (*)