PT Semen Gresik communication division chief Saifuddin Zuhri said that the Tuban IV factory development, with a 2.5 million ton capacity worth Rp 3.5 trillion in Sumber Arum subdistrict, Kerek district, Tuban regency, was part of the company's efforts to meet the national requirement for cement.

"We need more factories as the demand for cement in the country has experienced a 6 percent increase per year," Saifuddin told The Jakarta Post.

Saifuddin said his company was also developing the Tonasa V factory in South Sulawesi, with a capacity to produce 2.5 million tons of cement a year, and planned to begin operation by 2011.

With the additional factories, Saifuddin said the national production of cement was expected to reach 20 million tons a year.

However, he expressed concern that the target could be disturbed by legal challenges facing the company regarding the license for exploring the karst on Kendeng mountain range in Sukolilo, Pati, Central Java.

The company and the Pati regency administration lost a legal case in August filed to the State Administration Court in Semarang, Central Java, by the environment advocacy team regarding the company's exploration license to establish a cement factory in Sukolilo. They appealed to the State Administrative High Court in Surabaya.

The higher court's spokesman, Arif Turdua, said the judges had been carefully studying the documents.

"We have received input from both the locals and the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) for the judges to come up with an appropriate sentence," he said Thursday after meeting with 50 representatives from Sukolilo and Walhi in Surabaya.

Walhi executive director Bambang Catur Nusantara expressed hope that the judges would not only use written documents and directly study the case in the field before coming up with a sentence.

"We invite the State Administrative High Court to observe the exploration site and talk to the local people regarding the possible water crisis threat caused by the karst exploration in the region," he said.

Bambang said his organization would continue to monitor the case, arguing that the Pati regency administration had violated a bylaw on the regency's 2003-2012 spatial planning, which stipulated that Kendeng mountain range was an agricultural and tourism area, not a mining area.

"We also hope that the East Java provincial administration can use the court's sentence as a reference to review the license it has given to PT Semen Gresik to explore Kendeng mountain range in Tuban to produce cement," he said.

Bambang said that the karst area along Kendeng mountain range, which stretches from Taban subdistrict in Kudus, Central Java, to Tuban, East Java, had been the main water resource for thousands of people living in and surrounding the region.

"We really hope that the East Java provincial administration deploys strong spatial planning and the mining and industry will not damage the sustainability of the social and cultural system," he said.

"We hope it will provide prosperity to the people with the support of agriculture."

Bambang said the development of the cement factory in Tuban was similar to the drilling activities of Lapindo Brantas Inc. in the densely populated region of Porong, Sidoarjo, East Java.

"The administration is set on issuing the exploration license even though the region is densely populated," Bambang said.

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