Tender process for new power plants to be sped up to three months

The government will speed up the tender process for the construction of new power plants to only three months from about a year at present so that the program to provide additional power supply of about 8,000 MW in three years can be carried out according to schedules, Media Indonesia reported on Wednesday.

The government's commitment to shorten the tender process was unveiled by Vice President M. Jusuf Kalla when he began his official to China on Monday.

The vice president said that the bidding process for investors to build power plants in the country had been shortened to three months from more than a year before.

"But the government feels it could be further sped up to three months so that the plan to build more coal-fired power plants can be realized according to the existing schedules," he told Indonesian reporters accompanying him during his visit to China.

The government will invite investors to build a number of coal-fired power plants with combined capacity of about 8,000 MW as part of its program to replace the high-cost oil diesel power plants. (*)