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Indonesia high-speed railway still beset by problems
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Transportation/Indonesia-high-speed-railway-still-beset-by-problemsJAKARTA -- Indonesia's planned high-speed rail project, an integral part of China's Belt and Road initiative, is raising fresh concerns about its safety, profitability and accessibility.
Scheduled to start service in July, a month later than planned, the 142-kilometer-long railway will connect the capital Jakarta with Bandung in West Java province.
In mid-December, a maintenance train and locomotive derailed at a construction site near Bandung, killing two Chinese workers and spurring concerns about the safety of high-speed rail in the country. It was the first fatal accident involving the line.
A senior Indonesian government official said there was a problem with the locomotive's brake and that human error could also have played a part in the accident. Both Jakarta and Beijing said that the accident poses no threat to the safety of high-speed rail in Indonesia.
Both governments stressed that the accident was caused by the maintenance vehicle and that the locomotive imported from China escaped major damage.
Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC) -- the consortium running the project, which is funded by state-owned railway operator Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) and other organizations -- resumed construction before findings of the government investigation into the accident were released. The president of KAI told reporters on Jan. 28 that the railway's opening will be postponed until July.
Some have voiced doubts that the line will open in July. Construction work is only 84% complete with some railway track still not laid, according to KAI.
Trial runs of the high-speed line, which will operate at up to 360 kilometers per hour, are scheduled to start around the end of May. But even if all goes well, meeting the July deadline will be difficult, based on Japanese standards.
An executive of a Japanese trading house who has experience in overseas railway projects said that data collected during the trials will be important. Trials must run at maximum speed after which the positions of tracks are adjusted -- sometimes in millimeters.
Testing and verifying overseas rail projects backed by Japan takes at least a year, according to a Japanese government official.
Another concern is profitability. The Indonesian government initially tried to adopt Japan's bullet train for the project, but in 2015 switched to a Chinese proposal that did not involve funding by the Indonesian government.
It was decided that 75% of the construction cost would be funded by loans from China Development Bank with the remainder coming from KCIC.
Construction began in January 2016 with completion set for 2018. But overly optimistic estimates about acquiring land needed for construction pushed the finish date back.
In addition, construction costs have swelled well past the initial estimate of $5.5 billion, forcing the Indonesian government to inject more than 7 trillion rupiah ($462.1 million) into the project.
A KCIC official in December told parliament that the consortium has requested the government to extend its operating rights to 80 years from the initial 50. The group plans to eventually transfer all rights to the government but said that it will take more time to recoup investment due to the delays and ballooning costs.
KCIC has set the Jakarta-Bandung fare at 250,000 rupiah, saying that the price strikes a fair balance between profitability and usability. The company plans to keep fares for the line only about 20% higher than that of KAI limited express trains to attract riders.
Meanwhile, some observers think the project does not align with President Joko Widodo's plan to relocate the nation's capital to East Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo.
Others raise the question of the new line's accessibility in Bandung, noting that the terminal is too far from the city center. Passengers will have to board a different train when traveling between the Bandung terminal and the central district -- adding nearly 20 minutes to the 36-minute ride from Jakarta. It still shaves considerable time off existing train service, but the inconvenience may irk some passengers.
Despite the problems, the government is rumored to be thinking about converting all existing KAI lines between Jakarta and Bandung into high-speed rail. But some users have already voiced opposition, saying that speed is not the most important aspect of travel between the two cities, as they prefer more leisurely journeys to enjoy the view along the route.
The Indonesian government has floated the idea of extending the new railway to the country's second-largest city Surabaya in East Java province. Japan plans to help Indonesia make existing medium-speed trains between Jakarta and Surabaya faster through official development assistance, but some Japanese government officials remain skeptical of the plan.
