Central Kalimantan targets railway line construction in 2012

Central Kalimantan says it plans to build a railway line to open train access to the province’s isolated areas.

“Our plan is to build railway tracks in Central Kalimantan in October 2012,” governor Agustin Teras Narang said, as quoted by kompas.com.

He said that the planned railway system would connect all of Kalimantan, as had been agreed by the four Kalimantan governors.

“The railway in Kalimantan will be connected once the four provinces have built their own railway tracks,” he said.

According to Narang, the tender process for the railway construction had already begun. Of the initial 16 companies that participated in the international tender, there remained only four companies from four different countries: England, France, China and Japan.

Narang said that railway construction in the province would cost up to Rp 19 trillion (approximately US$2.15 billion).