Land acquisition for Batang project completed

Land acquisition for the 2x1,000 MW coal-fired power plant in Batang, Central Java, has been finally concluded, paving the way for the construction of the long-delayed project, Kontan reported on Thursday.

?With the completion of the land acquisition, we hope the groundbreaking could be implemented soon,? Minister of Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ferry Mursyidan Baldan said.

Construction of the key project has suffered lengthy delays after its developer PT Bhimasena Power Indonesia (BPI) faced difficulties in completing the acquisition of the required 226 hectares of land amid opposition from some land owners and environmental activists.

The government then assigned in November of last year state-owned electricity company PT PLN to help BPI in completing the acquisition of a remaining 29 ha of land for the project by applying Law No 2/2012 on land procurement for public infrastructure facilities.

BPI is a consortium comprising of Jakarta listed coal giant PT Adaro Energy Tbk, and Japan?s J-Power Energy Power Development Co. Ltd. and Itochu Corp.

Kontan said that the government earlier anticipated ground-breaking for the Batang power plant project could be made end March of this year, in the hope that the US$4 billion power plant project could be completed in 2018. (*)