Photo: detikfinance
The fast train railway is 142 kilometers long along Jakarta-Bandung and costs more than IDR 70 trillion (around USD 5 billion).
22 Januari 2016 09:43
Brilio.net/en - Yesterday (21/1/2016), the president of Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, attended the groundbreaking of Jakarta-Bandung fast train line in Walini, a new urban area in West Bandung Regency. The president arrived at the PTPN VIII area, East Cikalong District, at 9 a.m. in the morning and did not stay long in Bandung for he had another presidential meeting in Jakarta at 3 p.m.
The train company, PT. Kereta Cepat Indonesia China, had prepared everything for this event. The Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI)s Executive Vice President for Corporate Communication, Agus Komarudin, explained that there were some ground leveling and structuring using heavy equipment to make the area ready. PT. Pindad was the producer for the heavy equipment, such as an excavator.
The fast train railway is 142 kilometers long along Jakarta-Bandung and costs more than IDR 70 trillion (around USD 5 billion). The fast train will be integrated with Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) in Bandung area and Light Rail Transit (LRT) in Jakarta and around (Jabodetabek). This integration is built to support the development of a new Central Business District (CBD) or Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in Walini, where government will start to build on 1,200 to 10,000 hectares of new land, of which the government will have to replace twice the area at the same location. This area will be a new home for West Java Provincial Government Center and the campus of Institute of Technology Bandung (ITB). Train is also hoped to be a solution for traffic problem in Bandung which inhabit 8 million people and Jabodetabek which inhabit 28 million people.
However this project is not using any of the governments money. A new state-owned enterprise (BUMN) between Indonesia and China is built to fund the project and named as PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC). Some of the consortium members are Indonesian big companies PT. Wijaya Karya Tbk. (WIKA), PT. Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), PT. Jasa Marga Tbk. (JSMR) and PT. Perkebunan Nusantara VIII (PTPN VIII).
KCIC contributed as big as 25% of the investment (around USD 1.375 billion) while China Development Bank (CBD) contributed the rest of it (75% or around USD 4.125 billion). The governments money will be allocated for infrastructure development, such as train network to highways outside of Java.
This project is funded completely by investment It is a concrete form of BUMN synergy. This is a good provision to face the global competition, said Jokowi.
(Reported by Victoria Tunggono)
