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ENPASAR: The central government's plan to continue construction of a geothermal power plant in Bedugul reserve forest is likely to end in failure.

Recent discussion has seen another round of rejections voiced by the island's influential clerics, scholars and activists.

On Sunday, Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika joined the chorus and explicitly stated that his administration would not backtrack from its stance taken in mid-2010 and late 2011. On those two separate occasions, Pastika rejected the plan on the grounds that the area was deemed sacred by Balinese Hindus and that the project may endanger the conserved forest that serves as the island's main water catchment area.

'We are sorry we cannot accept the plan. We have a different perspective to that held by those who planned the power plant,' he said.

His statement was made in response to that issued Friday by fellow Balinese, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik, who said that the government would continue the geothermal project.

The plan to build a geothermal plant in Bedugul, some 70 kilometers north of Denpasar, met with strong resistance from green activists, who feared the construction would inflict irreversible environmental damage.

Religious leaders also objected to the plan, claiming Bedugul and the nearby Batukaru mountain were sacred points in the island's divine cosmology.