JAKARTA – Maritime Coordination Minister Luhut Pandjaitan made it clear from the start that Southeast Asia’s first bullet train would not simply be confined to a newly opened 143km track winding through tea plantations between Jakarta and the hilly city of Bandung. I made it.
As he admitted in a 2018 interview, such short distances make no sense and if the Chinese-owned high-speed rail (now called Fushu) would give passengers just an hour to fight traffic jams, If forced, it will become a white elephant. Arrive at the terminal at each terminal.
Pandjaitan and his team believe that to make commercial sense, the bullet train would need to cover at least 300 kilometers, have steep gradients in places, and have four stations to reach high-speed rail speeds. agreed that there is no need to cover at least 300 kilometers, rather than the short distance between Jakarta and Bandung. Well, it’s early.
After several ceremonies with visiting Chinese officials, President Widodo finally launched the long-delayed PT Kerata Sepat Indonesia China (KCIC) project on October 2nd, and announced the opening of the long-delayed PT Kerata Sepat Indonesia China (KCIC) project between Bandung and Surabaya. The plan was revived, but I never saw the sophisticated trains go much beyond the station.
As it stands, the original project cost of $6.07 billion ended up rising to $7.27 billion, forcing the government to backtrack on its promise not to use state funds to fill the funding gap. Both governments are confused and dissatisfied with this.
According to media reports, the most significant cause of cost escalation was an additional 44.4% for engineering procurement, followed by 22.2% for land acquisition issues, which real estate experts say are completely predictable and keep the business on track. This is said to have led to early delays in boarding the train. .
Deputy Minister of State Enterprises Kartika Viljoatmojo said KCIC will next week negotiate a new $560 million deal with the China Development Bank (CDB) to cover cost overruns of $1.2 billion, down from the previously expected $1.4 billion. announced that it would sign a loan for
News portal Catadata Indonesia estimates that KCIC’s total debt to CDB will reach $4.5 billion after cost overruns are taken into account.
The Surabaya expansion, which will be elevated along the entire length of Surabaya, was never possible under President Joko Widodo, whose infrastructure achievements have been a hallmark of his two terms in office.
In 2018, Pandjaitan said the 750-kilometre project, which runs from Bandung to the new but little-used Kertajati International Airport in West Java and on to Purwokarta, Yogyakarta, Solo, Madiun and the East Java port city of Surabaya, He told the Times: This is a 20 to 30 year goal. ”
By then, Jakarta and Bandung, already the country’s third largest city, will become one vast metropolis, he said. “We have to look ahead just five years. Transportation must be in place and it must span hundreds of kilometers.”
A new railway linking Jakarta and Bandung will cut travel time from three hours to 40 minutes, but may struggle to attract customers. Many potential passengers are likely to continue using the existing freeway (a two-hour trip) rather than fighting traffic just to get to the train.
KCIC said the railway is not expected to be profitable for more than 40 years, which is twice the return on investment assumed in the original feasibility study. A report last year estimated demand at 31,215 passenger trips per day, about half of the company’s original forecast.
Ticket prices range from $16 to $22, similar to regular train prices that conveniently depart from major stations in the center of both cities. Even with permanent subsidies, it is certain that fares will be higher when full service is in place.
Without competitive fares at this early stage, transportation experts fear that the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail will not lose its novelty, even with a light rail commuter service at the Bandung terminus. There is.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned that what was supposed to be the centerpiece of China’s multitrillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative has suffered long delays, mostly due to land and technical issues. He expressed his frustration.
Mr. Xi, clearly aware of the negative impact on the image of China’s unprecedented global infrastructure development drive, injected new urgency into the project when he met with Mr. Widodo in Beijing last year. I tried.
A joint statement issued by the two leaders said they were committed to completing the new railway “on time as a flagship project” and working on what they called “more strategic projects.”
Both governments had hoped to allow the railway to be opened by Mr Xi, who attended the G20 summit in Bali last November, and to have the railway ready for trials last November. However, as the two leaders watched the trial run, it was not the grand occasion they had expected.
Regarding the high-speed rail extension to Surabaya, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Economic Coordination said the Chinese side rejected Jakarta’s proposal for CDB to cover 75% of the funding gap using the same financing structure that was applied to the original project financing. admitted that.
Instead, the current shareholder structure of the KCIC consortium is 60% controlled by four Indonesian state-owned companies and the remaining 40% owned by China Railway International Corporation and four other Chinese companies. will be distributed.
Frustrated Indonesian commentators pointed out that China had estimated the project’s cost in 2015 bidding documents at $5.1 billion, lower than Japan’s $6.2 billion alternative to building the line. There is.
After all, even if the patient Japanese had done much of the early feasibility work, that and the idea that the Chinese would get the job done faster drove the project the way Beijing did. It was.
Speed is everything in President Widodo’s Indonesia, which explains why he is determined to move forward with moving the new capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan, the final cap on a huge legacy of infrastructure construction.
Critics say engineering difficulties should also have been expected when a licensed survey conducted by KCIC in 2016 identified at least four sites along the line that were considered geologically unstable. It is claimed that
Public policy critics have voiced their concerns about the project, some directly to Mr. Widodo, and one outspoken expert has said that such a short, high-speed project would take decades to recoup its costs. He said the railway was unfeasible.
Widodo argued that Indonesia needs state-of-the-art transportation, following in the footsteps of late tech-savvy President BJ Habibie. “We must not be afraid to learn and try new things, even though unexpected difficulties may arise in the process,” he said at the opening of the Jakarta-Bandung line last week.
Like the long-planned bridge over the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, that time will come, but it is not now. “Future governments will have to put this on the list of national strategic projects, otherwise it will be beyond our economic capacity,” a senior transport official told Asia Times.
