Construction of Jakarta-Bandung Railway to Start Nov. 9i
Jakarta.Construction of a new railway line between Jakarta and Bandung is set to begin early next month, an official said on Friday.
The $5.5 billion projectis a joint venture between China Railway International and a consortium of Indonesian state-owned companies, called Pilar Sinergi BUMN Indonesia (PSBI).
Sahala Lumban Gaol, the chairman of the joint venture and an adviser to the minister for state-owned enterprises, said work on the medium-speed railway line would begin on Nov. 9, with the project expected to be finished by the end of 2018 and commuter services to commence in the first quarter of 2019.
The PSBI will hold a 60 percent stake in the joint venture, while China Railway International, which will hold the rest, will fund 75 percent of the project.
Sahala reiterated the government’s line that the project would not rely on any state funding, with financing already agreed on under a business-to-business scheme.
He said the project would boost the economy in the areas through which the railway line will cut.
“We will develop locations where stations will be placed for the Jakarta-Bandung corridor,” he said.
The government had earlier proposed building a high-speed line between the two cities, with bids from China and Japan being considered. However, the administration of President Joko Widodo pulled a last-minute switch on the eve of announcing the bid winner, saying it was no longer interested in a high-speed line – much to the chagrin of the Japanese, who had already spent millions of dollars on a feasibility study for the project.
While analysts have welcomed the scrapping of the high-speed project – the 150-kilometer distance between Jakarta and Bandung would mean the train would never reach anywhere near its top speed – they have also questioned the need for a medium speed line, given that there is already a train service between the cities, as well as a toll road.
Construction of Jakarta-Bandung Railway to Start Nov. 9 | Jakarta Globe
