Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said Tuesday a project to build a $4 billion thermal power plant project funded by an Indonesia-Japan consortium will begin at the end of April.
"God willing, we will go there for the groundbreaking at the end of this month," Jokowi told reporters after meeting with the management of state-owned electricity company PT PLN.
The project in Batang Regency of Central Java province has been stalled for four years amid on-again, off-again negotiations with local residents on land acquisition. Early this month, the government said negotiations were complete, paving the way for construction to begin this year.
"Batang is very important because it's already been four years and there is no progress," the president told reporters during an interview in late March. "We would like to show Japan that the government supports this project seriously. We need electricity, power plants, because with these power plants, we can build our industry."
The 2,000-megawatt coal-fired power plant, meant to supply electricity to 13 million people in Central Java province, has been promoted by a consortium formed by the Japanese government-linked Electric Power Development Co. and trading house Itochu Corp.