Indonesia is launching Southeast Asia's first high-speed railway, a key project under China's Belt and Road initiative, that will cut travel time between the capital and another major city from three hours to about 40 minutes.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The project has been beset with delays and increasing costs, and some observers doubt its commercial benefit, but President Joko Widodo has championed it and will be inaugurating the 142.3-kilometre railway as it begins commercial operations on Monday.
The Chinese-made bullet train, called "Whoosh," will connect Jakarta with Bandung, the heavily populated capital of West Java province. Widodo, along with other high-ranking officials, is expected to ride the Whoosh from its first station, Halim KCBJ in eastern Jakarta to Bandung's Tegalluar station, the last of the line's four stations.
The $7.3 billion (A$11.3b) project, largely funded by China, was constructed by PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China, known as PT KCIC, a joint venture between an Indonesian consortium of four state-owned companies and China Railway International Co. Ltd. The joint venture said the trains will be the fastest in Southeast Asia, with speeds of up to 350 kph.
Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for maritime and investment, said China Railway has agreed to transfer its technology to Indonesia so that in the future the country's high-speed trains can be made domestically.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang took a test ride early last month while visiting Jakarta for three days of talks with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations and other countries.
Widodo took a 25-minutes test ride on the train a week later and told reporters he felt comfortable sitting or walking inside the bullet train even at its top speeds. He urged people to switch from cars to mass transportation to reduce congestion and pollution.
PT KCIC has also been running a two-week, free-of-charge public trial prior to the inauguration.
Indonesia broke ground on the project in 2016. The line was originally expected to begin operations in 2019, but was delayed by disputes over land acquisition, environmental issues and the COVID-19 pandemic, while costs ballooned.
The trains have been modified for Indonesia's tropical climate and are equipped with a safety system that can respond to earthquakes, floods and other emergency conditions. The 209-metre train has a capacity of 601 passengers.
The project is part of a planned 750-kilometre high-speed train line that would cut across four provinces on Indoensia's main island of Java and end in the country's second-largest city, Surabaya.
Deddy Herlambang, executive director of the Jakarta-based NGO Institute for Transportation Studies, said the public does not really need a high-speed train on the Jakarta-Bandung route because there were already many other ways of travelling between the two cities.
He said the bullet train would have a significant economic impact if it connected Jakarta and Surabaya. However, he was pessimistic that the railway project would make a profit in less than 30 years of operation.
Australian Associated Press
