PLN to hold tender for PLTA Asahan III project

State-owned electricity company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara will hold a tender for the construction of the third unit of the Asahan hydropower plant (PT Asahan III) in North Sumatra in order to get a fair price.

?We will hold a competitive bidding to get the best price because some say that the construction cost could be only to around US$350 million, lower than our estimate of $400 million, if it is built by a private firm,? the company?s president director Dahlan Iskan said in Jakarta on Thursday.

Dahlan said that if the company went ahead with the tender plan, it would not use the funds amounting to about $430 million pledged by Japan Bank International Corporation (JBIC) for the project.

The government earlier decided to assign PLN to build the PLTA Asahan III power plant which will have a capacity of 2 x 87 megawatt. The Japanese bank has pledged to provide loan worth $430 million with an annual interest of 0.7 percent for the project. (bernard)