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RI to bring in Chinese staff in rush to launch high speed rail link
It appears that China will be running the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway in its first year of commercial operations before gradually transitioning to all-Indonesian staff, though experts caution against rushing to launch the service.
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Workers stand beside a high-speed train on Oct. 13, 2022 at the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail service’s Tegalluar depot in Bandung, West Java. (Reuters/Yuddy Cahya Budiman)
T
he government is insisting on launching the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail (HSR) in August as planned, even if this means bringing in more Chinese workers to handle initial operations.
Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan told reporters on Friday that there would be no delay to commencing the service’s operation, and that the schedule remained unchanged.
The day before, a Reuters report citing an internal document said the Transportation Ministry and three consultants had suggested pushing back the date of commercial operations to January 2024 due to unfinished work.
PwC, one of the consultants mentioned in the Reuters report, declined to comment when contacted by The Jakarta Post, while another consultancy, Mott MacDonald, did not immediately respond to the Post’s request for comment.
Risal Wasal, the ministry’s rail transportation director general, told the Post on Thursday that neither the consultants nor the ministry had made any such recommendation.
PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC), the Indonesian-Chinese joint venture responsible for the project, said in a statement on Thursday that the targeted launch date of operations was still in August to coincided with Indonesia’s 78th Independence Day, but it did not mention a launch date for the rail service’s commercial operation.
KCIC spokesman Emir Monti said the company would hold a soft opening to allow members of the general public to ride the train from Jakarta’s Halim Station to Padalarang Station in West Bandung, though only a limited number of stations would be ready to serve passengers.
