Ministry cancels bidding for main part of Yamba Dam

The land ministry's Kanto Regional Development Bureau formally announced Friday that it canceled the bidding for building the main structure of Yamba Dam after the government decided to scrap the costly project.

Shortly after the Democratic Party of Japan won a landslide election victory with a pledge to ditch the 57-year-old project in Gunma Prefecture, the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry on Sept. 3 indefinitely delayed the bidding process, which was slated to kick off on Sept. 11.

Land minister Seiji Maehara decided to cancel the entire bidding process because merely postponing it would have placed a financial burden on the construction companies that made technical proposals before submitting their bids.

Maehara repeated that the DPJ-led government will abide by its election manifesto and said the ministry will not seek expenditures in the fiscal 2010 budget for building the main structure.

In the final stretch of the ¥460 billion project, which is about 70 percent complete, construction of the dam itself was scheduled to start this month at an expense of some ¥62 billion. Most of the work has so far centered on relocating residents and infrastructure from areas that were to be submerged. The dam was scheduled for completion in fiscal 2015.

The ministry distributed a bidding notice for the main structure in January, and bidding was supposed to begin in September.

Meanwhile, Liberal Democratic Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki visited the dam site Friday to exchange opinions with local residents and Gunma Gov. Masaaki Osawa.

"The DPJ is not listening to the voices of local residents and there is a big problem with the process of (canceling the project)," said Tanigaki. "I want to thoroughly debate this at the Diet."

Tanigaki's remarks signal an apparent attempt by the LDP to curry favor with local residents and attack the DPJ.

During the LDP's presidential election campaign, Tanigaki pledged to listen to local voices, vowing to travel to all 47 prefectures before the Upper House election next summer. His visit to the Yamba Dam was the first leg of his tour.