Astra affiliate to build power plant
BANDUNG, West Java (JP): PT Astratel Nusantara, a subsidiary of the Astra International Group, announced yesterday that it plans to construct a combined-cycle power plant in Palembang, South Sumatra.
Company president Thomas B. Subijanto told a press conference here yesterday that the plant, which will have a generation capacity of 130 megawatts, is expected to start operation in 1998.
"We have submitted a proposal for the power project to the government and we are currently studying the details of the power purchase agreement with the state electricity company," he said during the three-day international telecommunications conference that opened on Monday.
Subijanto said that the power plant will be built for an estimated cost of US$200 million, which will be obtained from equity and project financing.
Astratel operates in the infrastructure business.
Subijanto said Astratel has joined and passed the pre- qualification stage in a bid to construct two of the 19 toll road segments planned by the government.
The two toll road segments, which will be jointly established with the state-owned Jasa Marga road management company, are the Pandaan to Malang segment in East Java and the Cirebon to Tegal segment linking Central and West Java.
Telecoms
Astratel has established 125,000 telephone lines in Jakarta and will set up 10,000 public card-telephone facilities in Jakarta and West Java.
Last July, in cooperation with consortium partners France Telecom, PT Intertel Pratama Media and a cooperative of the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications, Astratel was also one of the winners of a contract to provide 516,000 telephone lines in Sumatra.
The lines are part of the government's target to provide a total of five million telephone lines in Indonesia by the end of the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan period in 1999. Three million lines will be constructed by the state-owned PT Telkom telecommunications company and the remaining two million by the private sector under an operational cooperation arrangement with Telkom.
The operational cooperation involves revenue-sharing between private sector companies and Telkom, and guarantees Telkom minimum revenues when the new lines start operating.
Subijanto said that the signing of the joint venture agreement by consortium's members will be conducted today.
PT Pramindo Ikat, under which the consortium will operate, is 35 percent owned by France Telecom's France Cable et Radio, 60 percent by Astratel and the remaining 5 percent by Intertel Pratama Media and the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications's employee cooperative.
Subijanto said the new lines will be established with an initial investment of $570 million. (pwn)