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Paperwork ongoing for Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway

The government continues to review paper work for the development of a high-speed rail project connecting Jakarta and Bandung, West Java

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Tue, December 8, 2015

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Paperwork ongoing for Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway

T

he government continues to review paper work for the development of a high-speed rail project connecting Jakarta and Bandung, West Java. The project faces permit and funding issues ahead of its mid-December soft launch.

Transportation Ministry director general for railways Hermanto Dwiatmoko said the ministry was looking into permits and regulations related to the project and drafting technical standards for the high-speed train.

'€œWe will base some [standards] on the UIC [International Union of Railways],'€ he said, referring to global organization for railway cooperation. The technical standards would be used to evaluate the competence and efficiency of PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC) in constructing the high-speed train.

KCIC is a joint venture between Indonesian state firms PT Wijaya Karya, PT Kereta Api Indonesia, PT Jasa Marga and PT Perkebunan Nasional VIII with the China Railway International Co. Ltd. KCIC has been chosen to build Indonesia'€™s first ever high-speed train at an estimated cost of US$5.5 billion. Three quarters of the funding will come from the China Development Bank.

The high-speed train, which will run at over 250 kilometers per hour on a 140-kilometer-long track, will begin construction in 2016 and will be finished by 2018. It will pass four stations in its first phase, including Halim in Jakarta and Karawang and Tegalluar in West Java.

Hermanto also said that the ministry was reviewing proposals for railway track routes. The proposals for particular track routes were submitted by KCIC last week.

'€œBut before we give permits for the planned track routes, we need to also get a land-use permit from the regional administrations of Jakarta and West Java,'€ he said.

The regional administrations of both areas are expected to offer recommendations for track routes by developing provincial spatial planning policies.

The ministry previously planned to evaluate track route proposals by conducting field examinations in the areas passed by the railway project.

The estimated time needed to issue the permit for the track routes is around 30 days from the time of document submission. Other documents required for submission include an environmental impact analysis document and a design document.

The ministry'€™s spokesperson, Julius Andravida Barata, said that KCIC would not automatically agree to the recommendations put forward by the Jakarta and West Java administrations. '€œI think they'€™ll go through the process in a parallel way,'€ he said.

The absence of a regional government recommendation has also put the brakes on the soft launch, originally scheduled for the middle of this month. Another issue faced by KCIC is acquiring from the ministry the necessary capital to get a permit to operate the facilities for the public inter-city train.

Government Regulation No. 45/2015 on required capital for firms in the transportation sector stipulates that the minimum capital needed by a firm to operate a public intercity train is Rp 1 trillion ($71.8 million). The regulation is designed to secure the sustainability of these kinds of projects.

KCIC president director Hanggoro Budi Wiryawan said that the firm was still looking for the funds from shareholders.

'€œI can'€™t say much, this depends on the shareholders from Indonesia and China,'€ he said over the phone. He said that the time of the groundbreaking would also depend on the completion of all the required documents. (fsu)

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