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View all search resultsToo costly to immediately extend railway to Kertajati airport, official says
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (center) attends the groundbreaking ceremony for a high-speed train project in Cikalong Wetan, West Java, on Jan. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
T
he president director of an Indonesian and Chinese consortium for Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway project PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC), Sahala Lumban Gaol, has welcomed an idea to extend the project to Kertajati International Airport in Majalengka, West Java.
However, he stressed that all parties needed to focus on the 140-kilometer railway project before moving forward with the extension plan.
“It is better we finish the initial planned route as the first phase of the project, then we can extend to Kertajati,” said Sahala in Jakarta on Tuesday in response to the idea, which was proposed by Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, as reported by tempo.co.
Responding to criticism that the 140-km railway was not long enough, Luhut previously said the high-speed train could be extended to the airport and even to Yogyakarta or Surakarta in Central Java.
The construction of 60 km of new railway tracks from Bandung to Majalengka would burden investors as they had to allocate $5.9 billion in loans for existing project plans, Sahala added.
Sahala, who is also a State-Owned Enterprises Ministry expert staff member, said he would prefer to extend the project to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
“But just finish the 140-kilometer project first. After that we can extend to both Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and Kertajadi International Airport,” he added. (bbn)
Editor's note: the Kertajati International Airport is in Majalengka, West Java, not in Pandeglang as we mentioned before. We apologize for the error.
