The government must decide by year-end on definitive plans to build a controversial undersea cable link in order to meet future power needs, state utility firm Tenaga Nasional said today.

The billion-dollar undersea cable is meant to transmit power generated by the Bakun hydro-electric dam in Sarawak to the mainland.

"Our future projection on power is dependent on Bakun. This particular project has to be decided," said Tenaga's president and chief executive Che Khalib Mohamad Nor.

"If Bakun cannot be delivered on time we will have to think of an alternative and may have to start new plants for future needs," he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

Tenaga Nasional and conglomerate Sime Darby have teamed up to undertake preliminary work on the undersea cable but work has not started, with a technical study due only at the end of the year, Che Khalib said.

Approval also had to be obtained from Indonesia as the cable would pass through Indonesian waters, he added.

"We have told the government and Sime Darby that anything they want to approve must be decided this year," said Che Khalib.

Undersea cable unsafe

Energy Minister Lim Keng Yaik had said in January that the ambitious cable project should be completed by 2012, after the government had originally dropped it following the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

The dam project has been dogged with delays and setbacks since its approval in 1993. It had been slated to be completed by August 2007.

The dam, which involves flooding an area the size of Singapore, has attracted fierce criticism because of its harmful impact on the environment and the displacement of residents from the project site.

Environmentalists have also said the undersea cable was unsafe because of earthquakes in the region.

According to the Bernama report, some 900 kilometres of overland transmission lines and 680 kilometres of undersea cables will have to be installed.