Off the wire
• Indonesian president calls for stepping up effort to extinguish forest fire  • Houthis bomb Saudi-led coalition camp in Yemen, killing dozens  • Zuma lauds China's role in defending world peace  • Urgent: U.S. unemployment rate drops to 5.1 pct in August  • Feature: Venice Int'l Film Festival showcasing travails of children  • U.S. data-brokering giant works closely with Swedish affiliates: report  • British PM pledges to take in thousands more refugees  • China, Russia hold concert to mark WWII victory  • Jewish refugees and Shanghai exhibition held in Malta  • Swedish energy giants quarrel over decision to shut nuclear reactors  
You are here: 　 Home

Indonesian minister eager to continue fast train project serving Jakarta to Bandung

Xinhua, September 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

Indonesian State-owned Enterprises (SoE) Minister Rini Soemarno was eager to continue the fast-train project linking the capital city of Jakarta to West Java province capital of Bandung after the government recently turned down proposals to do such a project filed in by China and Japan.

Speaking in her office on Friday afternoon, the minister said that she had ordered state-run firms under her jurisdiction to recalculate funding and everything that necessary to carry out the project.

According to her, the project would be jointly conducted by firms under SoE supervision consisted of Wijaya Karya (WIKA), state train firm PT KAI, Plantation firm of PTPN VIII and Jasa Marga and their foreign partner.

She said that decision on the speed of the train and the foreign partner would be announced later this month.

Rini said the project would be purely financed by funds retrieved from private sources, would not use state budget money.

"This project would go underway. We would recalculate the proper speed, this is the important thing. We would also recalculate the stations needed to facilitate the train and the passengers, and where should the train make the stopovers," the minister said, adding that she expected her subordinates to take overtime in recalculating the project.

According to Rini, the fast train project would be closely related to business development in Bandung and its outskirts areas. Among the expected impacts from the fast train project was the development of a new city in West Bandung.

The 2,952 hectares area, called Walini, was projected to become an agro-tourism area as the higher ground area has vast tea plantation area, Rini added.

Rini did not exactly mention the period of time needed to carry out the project. "I can't promise now. The point is that it would not take too long time," she said.

A transportation analyst said that fast train fit to serve Jakarta to Bandung was the middle class one with a speed of 150 kilometer per hour.

"The best thing is that if we can shorten the train trip to one hour from three hour like it is now," Ofyar Z. Tamin, a transportation exert from Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) told Xinhua by phone on Friday.

He added that trains plying Jakarta to Bandung route operated by PT KAI now has a speed of 60 to 70 kilometers per hour.

According to Ofyar, safety must be prioritized in the consideration to provide fast train for the public. Endi