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apan’s Mitsubishi-Sumitomo Joint Operation is set to begin the construction of an electric railway system and four-track line connecting Bekasi and Cikarang in West Java later this month.

The company’s representatives Yoshiharu Watanabe signed the agreement for the US$250 million project with the Transportation Ministry’s railway director general Tundjung Inderawan in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The project will be financed by a long-term soft loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and it is expected to be completed by the end of 2016.

“We need around 45 months to construct the project and we are going to start it in the next 14 days,” Yoshiharu said on the sidelines of the signing ceremony.

He said the project would also include track modifications spanning 17 kilometers from Bekasi to Cikarang, new sub-stations in several locations such as Buaran, Cakung and East Bekasi, an interlocking system in Manggarai, Jatinegara and Cipinang in Jakarta and telecommunications facilities along the Bekasi-Cikarang section.

Tundjung said the project would help ease road congestion in Jakarta and surrounding areas.

“Road congestion in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi is getting more severe day by day.  A railway system is the perfect solution to ease traffic congestion in Greater Jakarta because it provides more space to accommodate passengers and freight,” he said.

In addition, the project aimed at separating the passenger and freight rail traffic from Java to Jakarta and vice versa.

Bekasi-Cikarang forms part of the 32-kilometer four-track project connecting Manggarai and Cikarang that has been suspended for eight years due to problems ranging from finance to land acquisition.  

The major project was divided into four packages: the Bekasi-Cikarang electrification system and four-track upgrade, Manggarai Station’s modernization and track modification, Jatinegara Station’s modernization and establishment of Matraman Station and a four-track line connecting Jatinegara and Bekasi.   

He said that the Jakarta-Bekasi four-track line was expected to start next year.

“We are currently accelerating the whole four-track project because this project will help boost the economy and reduce logistics costs across Java,” he added.

Moreover, he said that the tracks would support the Trans-Java project linking Jakarta and Surabaya, East Java, along the northern coastal highway (Pantura), construction of which is set to be finished by the end of 2013.

Forty percent of the work on the project is already complete, mostly along the Cirebon–Brebes and
Pekalongan–Semarang sections.

“We are optimistic about achieving our target of 65 percent completion by December,” he said.

The government will begin the Semarang–Bojonegoro and Bojonegoro–Surabaya sections next year.

They are able to accelerate the railroad project after securing Rp 1.47 trillion ($152.88 million) in additional funds from the state budget in May.

When the four-track system is complete, it is expected to increase existing capacity from 64 trains to 200 trains per day and reduce congestion and road deterioration on the Pantura highway.

It would also increase container-freight traffic from 5,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) a week to 15,000 TEUs a week.