Science, Technology and Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding declined to comment on whether the multi-billion ringgit Bakun Dam project would resume in its original form.

"The EIA (environmental impact assessment) has been cleared but as to whether it (the project) will be carried on, I have no comment," he told reporters after opening the Asia Pacific Design Conference and Design Exhibition in Kuala Lumpur today.

It is reported that the Bakun Dam project, touted to be the biggest in Southeast Asia, is being scaled back due to the economic slowdown triggered by the Asian financial crisis.

The project was to encompass a 205m-high dam in northeast Sarawak with a total production capacity of 2,400 megawatts of energy, most of which was to be channelled to Peninsular Malaysia using state-of-the-art undersea cables.

But a revised plan was for a dam with a capacity of 500 megawatts to service only Sabah and Sarawak.

However, when asked if the original plan was still on, Law replied: "The decision is up to Tenaga Nasional and the Ministry of Energy, Communications and Multimedia."

Law was commenting on Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's statement in a Financial Times interview on Oct 6 that the Bakun Dam project would be continued after being delayed twice due to the economic downturn in the late 1980s and in 1997/98.

Business weekly The Edge reported on Oct 9 that the original cost of RM15 billion would balloon to a staggering RM20 billion if the project was revived as per its original design.

Contradictory reports

According to a spokesperson for the Coalition of Concerned NGOs on Bakun, Dr Kua Kia Soong, the original costs were RM5 billion for the dam and RM10 billion alone for the undersea cables.

"There have been contradictory reports on whether the government wishes to revive the original dam project or to downscale it," Kua told malaysiakini today.

"The state government has called for the revival of the original project while the federal government wants the scaled-down (version)," he said.

Kua said the reportedly displaced 10,000 indigenous people to-date come from at least 11 different communities, and the state government's action "is akin to ethnocide".

He said that the dam, even if downscaled, was not necessary as Sabah and Sarawak were already getting enough electricity on their own.