T

he government plans to revamp 441 kilometers of southern Java’s railway tracks from Cirebon in West Java to Surabaya, building double tracks the entire way to increase passenger capacity and logistics trains.

Construction is scheduled to begin by the end of next year, once the government has completed the same double-track project for Java’s north coast (Pantura) railway.

Deputy Transportation Minister Bambang Susantono said the project, which will be divided into several sections, was expected to be completed in 2016.

“Double-track railroads along the southern and northern parts of Java will help boost economy and development across the Java Economic Corridor as stated in the MP3EI [Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesia’s Economic Growth],” Bambang said in Jakarta on Friday.

“Both are very important projects because by having two double-track railways, we will be able to triple economic power on the island [of Java] in the future.”

According to recent data from the ministry’s Railway Directorate General, some of the 441-km southern project already have double tracks but four sections are single track: Cirebon–Prupuk, Purwokerto–Kroya, Kroya–Kutoarjo and Surakarta–Madiun–Surabaya.

The ministry has determined that the investment needed for two of the sections, the 76 km Kroya–Kutoarjo section and the 263 km Surakarta–Madiun–Surabaya section, amounts to Rp 11.3 trillion (US$1.17 billion).

Bambang said the Kroya–Kutoarjo section would be financed by a soft loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) worth Rp 4.5 trillion, while the Surakarta–Madiun–Surabaya section would be financed by the state budget.

The southern double tracks will help ease container traffic and road congestion between Jakarta and Surabaya in the north. “We will have two options for transporting both people and goods [by train] between the two economic centers [Jakarta and Surabaya],” Bambang said.

Ministry data shows that once the double-track line for Cirebon-Kroya is complete, train frequency will double from 52 to 104 per day. The Kroya-Kutoarjo double-track section, meanwhile, will allow an increase from 69 train trips per day to 88.

The ongoing Trans-Java double-track project along the Pantura was 45 percent complete, Bambang said. When finished, the Pantura line is expected to increase existing capacity from 64 trains to 200 trains per day, reducing congestion and damage to roads.

The government plans to implement similar projects in Bali, Batam and Sulawesi. The Batam railway project, worth Rp 2.4 trillion, has been offered to foreign investors, particularly from Russia and Singapore, and is expected to be completed in 2017.

Previously, state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia’s president director, Ignasius Jonan, said the number of train passengers would increase by 5 to 10 percent every year despite stronger demand in the country’s aviation industry.

Jonan said people would prefer to travel by train for medium-length journeys that were too short for airplanes, such as Jakarta–Cirebon, Yogyakarta–Purwokerto, Madiun–Surabaya and Yogyakarta–Surabaya.