Edited by Voyagers at 31-3-2017 10:47 AM
Projek keretapi Super cepat sepatutnya bermula November 2015 dan mula beroperasi 2019 (berita lama)
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Indonesia high-speed train, backed by China, comes untracked
Land, finance and security issues have dogged the much ballyhooed Rp68 trillion (US$5.1 billion) Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project, Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s signature infrastructure undertaking. His government, keen to bridge a yawning infrastructure gap, awarded the contract to Chinese developers two years ago.
Construction was meant to have begun last year, with an ambitious completion date set for 2019. But the joint venture between China Railway International and a consortium of four Indonesian state-owned enterprises has yet to leave the station.
Asked recently what had happened to the project, a coordinating ministry official laughed, telling Asia Times: “It was a joke, but it was early in [Widodo’s] presidency and Rini (State Enterprise Minister Rini Soemarno) was so convincing.”
One of Widodo’s known favorite ministers, Soemarno pushed for China’s involvement from the start, even though the Japanese — a loyal investor in Indonesia for decades — produced the first feasibility study during previous president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s administration in 2011.
The China Development Bank (CDB) has pledged to provide 75% of the total cost, with the rest coming from state-run construction company Wijaya Karya, state railway firm Kereta Api, state toll-road outfit Jasa Marga and plantation company Perkebunan Nusantara.
But the CDB has refused to disburse the funds, offering instead a bridging loan until the Indonesian government has resolved the many land issues that still stand in the way of the project getting off the ground.
The Indonesian consortium, for its part, has had difficulty finding the additional Rp2 trillion (US$150 million) needed for the acquisitions, mirroring the financial difficulties delaying Jakarta’s Rp23 trillion (US$1.7 billion) light-rail system that has been under construction since 2015. Tracking along the city’s inner ring road, the light rail will connect the southern suburbs with the north-south Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system, an over-and-under 27-kilometer corridor stretching as far as North Jakarta’s Kota district. Scheduled for completion next year, the MRT is long overdue. Jakarta is the largest city in Asia not to have a modern rail-based people-mover, with transportation experts predicting total gridlock in the city by 2020. But despite more infrastructure building underway than at any time in the Indonesian capital’s 400-year history, efforts to improve rail and road networks across other parts of the densely populated island of Java face familiar difficulties.
Also on hold – but now undergoing a detailed feasibility study — is a proposed medium-fast rail link between Jakarta and Surabaya, which despite its much higher cost appears to make more economic sense than the shorter, high-elevation Bandung line. Offered to the Japanese as geo-political compensation for China winning the shorter Bandung track, the new line will cut the time for the 685-kilometer journey to Indonesia’s second biggest city from 12 hours to around five hours, depending on the design speed of the train Finance will again be a major factor. Experts estimate it will cost as much as US$25 billion because of the need to elevate at least 70% of the electrified track to avoid 988 level crossings along the route and smooth out bends. With the Trans-Java Highway only now nearing completion, revived interest in the Surabaya link comes 20 years after British developers were forced to abandon a similar venture because of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. The price then: US$3-$4 billion. China controversially won the Jakarta-Bandung project over Japanese bidders after the speed on the 150-kilometer link was reduced from a planned 350 kilometers-per-hour to 200-250 kph and the number of stations reduced from eight to four. The link is initially expected to carry 44,000 passengers a day and cut the travel time between Jakarta and the bustling highland city from three hours to 36 minutes, despite a 700-meter difference in elevation.
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Post time 31-3-2017 10:39 AM
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