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consortium comprising almost 20 companies for the Hydrogen Hi-Speed Rail Super Highway (H2RSH) project is scheduled to start its feasibility study on Jan. 11, 2010, involving transportation experts from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

West Java Regional Investment Coordinating Agency (BKPMD) chief Iwa Karniwa said the feasibility study was needed to finalize the plan for the US$3 billion project scheduled for realization in two years time.

"We have to vigorously move forward because the investors' are enthusiastic to realize the project and consider the positive impact of the project on economic development," Iwa told The Jakarta Post on Friday in Bandung.

The H2RSH project, he said, would cover a corridor of 357 kilometers from Cirebon, West Java, to Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang, Banten.

He added that a breakthrough was needed to speed up a number of development projects that were moving at snail pace, mostly due to problems including minimal investors and difficulties acquiring the land needed for the respective projects.

He was referring to the plans to develop the Kertajati International Airport in Majalengka, the Cirebon-Sumedang-Dawuan toll road project and other toll road projects to widen the north-south access.

Iwa said investors were highly enthusiastic to invest in the H2RSH project as four new investors from Nevada and California had signed an additional memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Los Angeles on Monday.

A consortium comprising of 15 investors from the US, Malaysia and Indonesia had previously signed the MoU on Dec. 1, 2009.

"We have to greet this enthusiasm as an investment breakthrough that will significantly absorb local products, use environment friendly hydrogen fuel and need up to six million units of manpower for its completion," Iwa said.

He said, the trip from Cirebon to the Soekarno-Hatta Airport would only take some 1.5 hours.

Iwa expressed confidence that the project, 80 percent located in West Java region and the rest Greater Jakarta and Banten province, would not "consume" much land as it would be like a monorail and operate above ground.

He said the West Java provincial administration would possibly issue a special bylaw to help smooth the land acquisition process.

Positive response has also been expressed by West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan, who asked the BKPMD to push the realization of the province's biggest ever investment project forward, a project worth $12 billion, according to business development.