PLN to soon secure land permit for PLTA Cisokan
Tuesday, October 25 2011 - 03:14 AM WIB
Secretary of West Java provincial government, Lex Laksamana, was quoted by Tempo as saying in Bandung that the provincial government will most likely issue the land permit for the 1,040 megawatt (MW) hydro power plant project at the latest next week.
Lex admitted that land permit is a complicated issue given the size of the area to be used for the development of the mega hydro power plant. The size of area for the power plant and dam outside forest area reaches 340 hectares, while the size of forest area affected by the project reaches 400 hectares.
The provincial government also needed to coordinate with National Land Registration (BPN) office and Forestry Ministry as well as the Energy and Mineral Resources ministry, said Lex.
Under the regional autonomy law, land permit for such project is issued by local government.
The head of West Java Regional Development Planning office (Bappeda), Deny Juanda Puradimaja said the eight-months delay of the issuance of land permit was partly due to disagreement on whether the project is a state or corporate project, in this case PLN.
Previously, the land permit was proposed by PLN. After lengthy discussion, it was agreed that the PLTA Cisokan was initiated by the state, and that the state appointed PLN to realize the project.
As a result of the agreement, all permit documents submitted by PLN earlier was restarted by the energy ministry, which representing the state, said Deny.
General Manager (GM) PT PLN Pembagkit Hidro Jawa, Indra Pribadi, said earlier that the construction of the hydro power plant will take about three to four years. If permit is issued soon, the project should be completed in 2015-2016.
The hydro power plant is located in Sukaresmi village, Rongga subdistrict, West Java.
PLN estimated that the cost to construct the entire project, including land acquisition, purchase of turbines and road infrastructure would reach Rp6 trillion. Portion of the funds would come from the World Bank.
The hydro power plant will be equipped with four power generators, each with an output capacity of 260 megawatts. Power produced by the plant will be integrated with the Java-Bali power network. (*)