PLN starts land acquisition for Batang power plant project

State-owned electricity company PLN has started the process to acquire the remaining land requirement for the 2x1,000 MW coal-fired power plant project in Batang, Central Java.

?The process has started, but it will be effective January 1, 2015,? said PLN President Director Nur Pamudji said as quoted by Kontan.

While he did not specifically when the land acquisition process would be completed, Nur was optimistic that it would not take long time.

The government has assigned PLN to complete the acquisition of the remaining land requirement for the Batang power plant project after the project developer, PT Bhimasena Power Indonesia (BPI), had faced lengthy delays amid opposition from land owners.

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.

Nur said that PLN has been assigned to acquire the remaining 29 hectares of land in Batang Regency, out of the total requirement of 226 ha of land for the power project.

PLN will apply Law No 2/2012 on land procurement for public infrastructure projects to acquire land for the Batang power project.

If PLN could complete the land acquisition next year, the US$4 billion Batang power plant project should be completed in 2018, just in time to avert a power crisis in Java. (*)