Work On Indonesian Thermal power plant to Start

 The construction of a $4 billion, 2,000-megawatt coal-fired power station in Indonesia will begin on April 1 after years of delay as land acquisitions are finally complete, Japan's Nikkei business daily said on Sunday.

PT Bhimasena Power Indonesia, a joint venture set up by Indonesian coal miner PT Adaro Energy Tbk and Japan's Itochu Corporation (ITOCF) and Electric Power Development Co. Ltd. (J-Power), will build and operate the Batang plant in Central Java.

Neither Itochu nor J-Power could be immediately reached for comment.

Indonesia's Supreme Court has thrown out a landholders' lawsuit on technical grounds, paving the way for the government to take over the remaining land for the project.

The prospect of raising funds for the project were also good, the newspaper said in a report from Jakarta. It did not elaborate or give its sources.

Indonesia's president Joko Widodo hosted the groundbreaking ceremony of the project last August with great fanfare but no ground was actually broken, with dozens of landowners refusing to give up their paddy fields.

The Batang plant was among a handful of new infrastructure projects that Indonesia hoped to finally get off the ground to ease power shortages in the Southeast Asian nation.

(Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori and Randy Fabi in JAKARTA; Editing by Robert Birsel)