Indonesia High-Speed Rail: Hit By Delays Due To Land Acquisition And Environmental Concerns, Jakarta-Bandung Stretch Set For June 2023 Opening

With nearly 90 per cent of the civil works related to the construction of subgrade, bridges, and stations complete, Indonesia is set to commence its first high-speed rail service connecting the country's capital, Jakarta and Bandung, a city in West Java province, by June 2023.

The 142.3 km stretch, being developed at an estimated cost of $7.8 billion, will reduce the travel time between two cities from the current three hours to about 40 minutes. The train will run at an approximate speed between 200 kmph and 350 kmph. Daily passenger flow on the rail link is expected to be 44,000 on average, with this number set to increase in later years. More than 80 km of the total length of the railway line will be elevated, while the remaining will be through 13 tunnels and subgrades.

The stretch is part of a planned 750 km high-speed train line that would cut across four provinces on the main island of Java and end in the country's second-largest city of Surabaya.

Project Funded By Chinese

The high-speed rail project is being executed by PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia, China, a joint venture formed in October 2015. It is a consortium of four Indonesian state-owned companies and China Railway International, a subsidiary of China Railway Group (CREC). While Indonesian entities hold 60 per cent equity in the joint venture, the Chinese firm holds the remaining 40 per cent equity.

The project is a part of China's strategic Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, with 75 per cent of the cost funded via a loan from the China Development Bank. The remaining 25 per cent is the consortium's funds. The Chinese loan will be for 40 years with a ten-year grace period.

In August 2022, the Indonesian government announced a gap funding of $274 million to PT KAI to expedite the project's construction.

The Indonesian government picked China for the project due to its readiness to provide guarantee-free loans, Japan, which was also in the requested, lost out as it requested Indonesian Government funding.

Delay in commissioning 

The construction work began in 2016, and the project was originally expected to be complete by 2019. However, it has been hit by delays due to disputes that involved land acquisition and environmental issues.

Trial operations on the railway line are expected to be conducted in November 2022. The project is set to commence operations by June 2023.

In September, an initial set of Chinese-made train cars for the high-speed railway project reached Jakarta's port. The train cars were designed and built by China's CRRC Qingdao Sifang railway company.