Stephen Then, The Star 2 Jan 10;
BAKUN: The Bakun hydroelectric dam is expected to become a cash cow that will churn out millions of ringgit for Sarawak starting this year.
Beginning October, the state government is projected to receive RM320mil in royalty payments from the developer of the RM7.8bil project.
The project developer, Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd, will pay RM162.3mil in a one-off special payment to the state government, plus RM155mil in water royalties and RM3.6mil in licensing fees, a source told The Star.
“The royalties and licensing fees (for generation of electricity) will then become an annual payment from next year,” the source said, adding that the RM162.3mil one-off payment was for the cost of the project that the state government had sustained.
“These payments are expected to be paid to Sarawak after September 2010, when the dam is scheduled to start generating electricity,” said the source.
Sarawak will also earn annual royalties from the sale of electricity to the peninsula once the 670km submarine cable is laid at the bottom of the South China Sea between Kuching and Johor.
The source said Sarawak Hidro and the state government had already agreed in principle to the terms and conditions of the royalty payments.
The Bakun project is now about 98% completed. However, it is learnt that there is a slight delay to the impoundment of the dam.
Originally, the sealing of the river diversion tunnels to allow the 69,500ha of dam reservoir to be flooded was supposed to be done by September 2009.
Yesterday, Bakun sources said the impoundment had yet to start because the finishing works to the main dam wall were still nearing completion.
However, at least 200MW of electricity can be generated once the first two turbines are activated by September this year.
The dam, which has been a controversy since 1996 when construction started, is the second highest concrete-faced rockfill dam in the world after the Shuibuya dam in China.
It has also been bogged down by delays, resulting in the Federal Government paying more than RM500mil in compensation to the affected parties, particularly during the 1997 economic crisis that saw the project shelved for 16 months.
There are still dilemmas, though.
About 900 natives are still staying in the area that will be flooded by the reservoir, which is about the size of Kelantan.
