Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway progresses by 64%, completes drilling of fifth tunnel

[Indos]

Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway progresses by 64%, completes drilling of fifth tunnel ​

Riska Rahman

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta / Thu, December 17, 2020 / 02:44 pm

Underground: A worker walks inside Tunnel 1 of the Jakarta-Bandung high speed railway project in Pondok Gede, Bekasi, West Java, on Tuesday. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)



Railway developer PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC), a joint venture between Indonesian and Chinese companies, has announced that the construction of the widely anticipated Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway has reached 63.9 percent, amid delays due to the pandemic. The company wrapped up the drilling of a tunnel, called Tunnel 1, which spans 1.8 kilometers and is located under the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road that connects Jakarta with Bekasi, West Java.

The most recent tunnel drilling completion rounds up the number of finished tunnels to five, according to KCIC president director Chandra Dwiputra in a statement on Tuesday. “With this tunnel completion, our tunnel drilling work progress has reached 74.94 percent of the total train tunnel length of 16 km,” Chandra said. He also added that that the company aimed to complete the drilling of two other tunnels over the next two months.

The Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway project is among the government’s national strategic projects (PSN) in the transportation sector and is expected to require total investment of US$6.07 billion. The railway project will serve four main stations: Halim in Jakarta, Karawang in West Java and Walini and Tegaluar in Bandung regency.

The trains will travel at 350 kilometers per hour, cutting travel time between Jakarta and Bandung to 45 minutes, faster than the approximately three hours on the existing train service. Before the pandemic struck the country, construction of the railway had faltered because of various challenges.

The Public Works and Housing Ministry demanded that the project’s construction be halted for two weeks in March, citing the project’s poor drainage system that caused flooding on the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road. The project also faced land acquisition issues, among others.

Read also: SOE Ministry demands assessment of halted high-speed railway project

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo also floated the idea of involving Japan, which had been outbid by China, in the high-speed railway project, as the government reviewed the prolonged delays and budget overruns in the construction. These challenges, on top of the pandemic, then caused KCIC to push back its completion and operation target to the second half of 2021 from the initial target of June 2021, a two-year delay from its original target.

KCIC’s Chandra stated that as for the elevated structure of the railway, the company had also erected 1,741 piers along the Jakarta-Bandung railway. Meanwhile, more than 12,000 rail rods measuring 50 meters are in the process of being shipped gradually from China, he added.

State-owned construction firm PT Wijaya Karya, which owns the majority of stake in Indonesian consortium PT Pilar Sinergi BUMN Indonesia, also stated that the project had fallen short of its 70 percent completion target for this year. “There were many obstacles, one of them being the pandemic,” Wika corporate secretary Mahendra Vijaya told The Jakarta Post via text message on Wednesday.

Wika disbursed a shareholder loan in October to PT Pilar Sinergi BUMN Indonesia of Rp 645.83 billion ($45.8 million) due after 12 months, according to Wika’s statement to the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). With the loan, Wika has disbursed an accumulated Rp 4.63 trillion since December 2015 to support the project.

Meanwhile, Coordinating Maritime and Investment Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said the high-speed railway project was important as it marked a turning point in the modernization of the public transportation system. “[The high-speed railway project] could be the modern mass transportation system that could solve our mobility needs,” he said in a statement. Wika’s shares, listed on the IDX under the ticker code WIKA, traded on Thursday at 12:18 p.m. at Rp 1,985, up 9.97 percent from the previous trading day. The stocks have lost 0.25 percent of their value since the beginning of the year.

Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway progresses by 64%, completes drilling of fifth tunnel

Company aims to complete the drilling of two other tunnels over the next two months.

www.thejakartapost.com

 

[Whizzack]

 

[Viet]

What the benefits for riding a short distance of 150km with many stops in between on a $6b hsr that can travel 350kmh?
Hardly anything
Unless indonesia can get the technology.

 

[TaiShang]

What the benefits for riding a short distance of 150km with many stops in between on a $6b hsr that can travel 350kmh?
Hardly anything
Unless indonesia can get the technology.

Same benefits if Japan had won the bidding.

 

[Viet]

Same benefits if Japan had won the bidding.

Yes same benefits here in Europe
Montenegro takes $1b loan from China to let chinese companies build a highway using chinese great technology, chinese workers and materials.
In a country of $5 billion Gdp. Now they are bankrupt because Gdp sinks by 1/10 thanks to pandemic.
Thanks heaven
Germany is not obliged to pay for others people’s debts. And stupidity.

 

[Whizzack]

What the benefits for riding a short distance of 150km with many stops in between on a $6b hsr that can travel 350kmh?
Hardly anything
Unless indonesia can get the technology.

Well the Jakarta - Bandung HSR is actually just the first leg of the planned line... The actual target is to connect Jakarta to Surabaya (about 800km) with HSR line... So this first line here is more like a proof of concept for HSR operations in Indonesia... If this line is successful and people get a liking to HSR, it will be so much easier to get future funding (either from state and/or private investors) to expand the line.

Of course there will also be ToT... for a project of this magnitude ToT is mandatory... But regardless of the actual HSR tech we get from ToT, we are already getting new experiences in railway engineering through this project (and also the Subway/MRT project) like tunneling, boring, railway bridging etc... Actually ever since the end of the Dutch colonial era, this is the first time we are doing railway tunneling of this scale...

 

[hualushui]

What the benefits for riding a short distance of 150km with many stops in between on a $6b hsr that can travel 350kmh?
Hardly anything
Unless indonesia can get the technology.

Indonesia is different from Vietnam. Indonesia’s per capita GDP is much higher than that of Vietnam, so Indonesians’ time is more valuable.
If every Indonesian passenger saves 3 hours, there will be tens of billions of passengers in the next few decades, and hundreds of billions of hours can be saved. These hours of work can create trillions of dollars in GDP.

Yes same benefits here in Europe
Montenegro takes $1b loan from China to let chinese companies build a highway using chinese great technology, chinese workers and materials.
In a country of $5 billion Gdp. Now they are bankrupt because Gdp sinks by 1/10 thanks to pandemic.
Thanks heaven
Germany is not obliged to pay for others people’s debts. And stupidity.

This is the reason why Vietnam's development is very slowly. Your habit of thinking is that in order not to be in debt, I would rather not develop.
Let me tell you the principle of modern economic operation. Almost all business operations are in debt, borrowing money from banks, financing from the stock market, and financing from the bond market. There is no modern enterprise that completely uses its own funds to run the company.

China did not prohibit the Republic of Montenegro from borrowing money from the United States to build roads, or borrowing money from Germany and Vietnam.
Why don't the United States, Germany, and Vietnam lend money to Montenegro to build highways?

 

[TaiShang]

Yes same benefits here in Europe
Montenegro takes $1b loan from China to let chinese companies build a highway using chinese great technology, chinese workers and materials.
In a country of $5 billion Gdp. Now they are bankrupt because Gdp sinks by 1/10 thanks to pandemic.
Thanks heaven
Germany is not obliged to pay for others people’s debts. And stupidity.

Intetesting causal relationship between highway and pandemic.

You are the first smart person to notice that.

The question is, why would Japanese firm compete against China's firm to win the project if it were so bad for Indonesia.

 

[Indos]

What the benefits for riding a short distance of 150km with many stops in between on a $6b hsr that can travel 350kmh?
Hardly anything
Unless indonesia can get the technology.

Yes same benefits here in Europe
Montenegro takes $1b loan from China to let chinese companies build a highway using chinese great technology, chinese workers and materials.
In a country of $5 billion Gdp. Now they are bankrupt because Gdp sinks by 1/10 thanks to pandemic.
Thanks heaven
Germany is not obliged to pay for others people’s debts. And stupidity.

Well of course we will get the experience on how to make high speed train infrastructure since several of our state owned companies who specialize in construction (PT Wijaya Karya), electronics (PT LEN Industry) and train maker (PT INKA) is part of Indonesian consortium on the project.

No we will not pay the loan and it is not loan but Chinese investment. Our state owned companies are also investing in the project as you can see on the article above.

It is not a project where we paid Chinese after they have helped us build the infrastructure like what you think. There is no guarantee from government on the project. They will get their investment back by becoming part of the company that will operate the route for quite a long period together with Indonesian state owned consortium. If they think the project is not profitable then they will not invest in the project.

Some benefit for Indonesian and also possible new passengers for the project

There are many areas along Jakarta-Bandung that will be developed. If you ever see the areas between Jakarta-Bandung you will know that it can be another housing project to supply work force to both Bandung and Jakarta.

Just some example of the areas that will be effected on the HSR project

This is more specific, Walini region which land is owned by state owned company specialize in agroindustry and will be one of HSR station.

They have planned to commercialize their land,

Just one example PT PTPN VIII (8) plan.

Another state owned company PT PTPN III (3). They can capitalize the region for tourism

Private owned developer company also will try to get benefit on the project by but I forgot the name of the project.

West Java Patimban port and Rebana triangle region effect

Government has already completed first stage of Patimban port in West Java and if the port final stage is finished in 2027 according to the grand plan, so it will be the biggest port in Indonesia. The port development that include its access road plus several planned toll road, including almost finished Cipali toll road that will connect Bandung into Subang region in West Java is projected to industrialize West Java further that later can bring more potential passengers to the HSR project.
-------------------------------------------------------------

More about the project plan. There are 4 station and they will try to develop the region where the station is inside. Not only Walini that will be developed if you see on the plan below.

 

[shi12jun]

What the benefits for riding a short distance of 150km with many stops in between on a $6b hsr that can travel 350kmh?
Hardly anything
Unless indonesia can get the technology.

Typical sour grape psychology

 

[Viet]

Indonesia is different from Vietnam. Indonesia’s per capita GDP is much higher than that of Vietnam, so Indonesians’ time is more valuable.
If every Indonesian passenger saves 3 hours, there will be tens of billions of passengers in the next few decades, and hundreds of billions of hours can be saved. These hours of work can create trillions of dollars in GDP.

This is the reason why Vietnam's development is very slowly. Your habit of thinking is that in order not to be in debt, I would rather not develop.
Let me tell you the principle of modern economic operation. Almost all business operations are in debt, borrowing money from banks, financing from the stock market, and financing from the bond market. There is no modern enterprise that completely uses its own funds to run the company.

China did not prohibit the Republic of Montenegro from borrowing money from the United States to build roads, or borrowing money from Germany and Vietnam.
Why don't the United States, Germany, and Vietnam lend money to Montenegro to build highways?

Nonsense
Vietnam Gdp per capita is $3,5k, Indonesia is stuck $4k since a decade. I expect we will get even in 2 years.
China peaceful rise, China Silk Road is as it is: a scam.
Germany doesn’t have any Silk Road because they are not so insane enough to make money out of blood of others people countries.

 

[Indos]

This is in Cikarang, a region that is already quite developed in West Java and can become one of the fat route for HSR project. Toyota factories for example are in Cikarang and North Jakarta. This HSR will help the mobility of the workers there.

HSR infrastructure in Cikarang, West Java

 

[Indos]

Nonsense
Vietnam Gdp per capita is $3,5k, Indonesia is stuck $4k since a decade. I expect we will get even in 2 years.
China peaceful rise, China Silk Road is as it is: a scam.
Germany doesn’t have any Silk Road because they are not so insane enough to make money out of blood of others people countries.

In Dollar term we are stuck since our currency lost value and become weak since 2012. In 2012, Indonesia nominal GDP has already been close to 1 trillion USD (Around 940 billion USD) but we only can reach 1 trillion USD in 2017 despite we grew around 5-5.5 percent until 2017. The real increase can be seen if we use PPP term.

By seeing the trend of what happen in the last 2 years (2019-2020) with better trade balance performance, I think Rupiah will be quite stable so it will likely double our GDP in 2030 if growth is between 5.5-6.5 percent that I think is achievable due to :

1. Rizki from Allah
2. Omnibus Law
3. Massive infrastructure project during Jokowi period
4. Stable and mature democracy (we dont have culture of prolong mass protest like what happen in Hongkong/Lebanon/Iraq/etc- our protester at some point tend to stop and let Constitutional Court to decide like what happen during election result, Anti Corruption protest, Omnibus Law protest)
5. Improvement in governance and consistency in anti-corruption campaign (the latest is two Jokowi ministers get captured this months alone)
6. Strong civil society and free press.
7. Our trade surplus with US is still around 14 billion USD while Vietnam already around 52 billion USD plus being called as currency manipulator by US and currently under their congress process (waiting result).
8. Education push since 2015 with the obligation for the state to spend 20 % of government spending in education (+ modern approach that is tried to be applied in our education by Gojek owner that is now become our minister to focus on critical thinking and analytical skills then remembering)

Yup, Vietnam now has become our tough competitor in GDP per-capita race within ASEAN group. I hope Indonesia can still be ahead of Vietnam on this race.

 

[Viet]

In Dollar term we are stuck since our currency lost value and become weak since 2012. In 2012, Indonesia nominal GDP has already been close to 1 trillion USD (Around 940 billion USD) but we only can reach 1 trillion USD in 2017 despite we grew around 5-5.5 percent until 2017. The real increase can be seen if we use PPP term.

By seeing the trend of what happen in the last 2 years (2019-2020) with better trade balance performance, I think Rupiah will be quite stable so it will likely double our GDP in 2030 if growth is between 5.5-6.5 percent that I think is achievable due to :

1. Rizki from Allah
2. Omnibus Law
3. Massive infrastructure project during Jokowi period
4. Stable and mature democracy (we dont have culture of prolong mass protest like what happen in Hongkong/Lebanon/Iraq/etc- our protester at some point tend to stop and let Constitutional Court to decide like what happen during election result, Anti Corruption protest, Omnibus Law protest)
5. Improvement in governance and consistency in anti-corruption campaign (the latest is two Jokowi ministers get captured this months alone)
6. Strong civil society and free press.
7. Our trade surplus with US is still around 14 billion USD while Vietnam already around 52 billion USD plus being called as currency manipulator by US and currently under their congress process (waiting result).
8. Education push since 2015 with the obligation for the state to spend 20 % of government spending in education (+ modern approach that is tried to be applied in our education by Gojek owner that is now become our minister to focus on critical thinking and analytical skills then remembering)

Yup, Vietnam now has become our tough competitor in GDP per-capita race within ASEAN group. I hope Indonesia can still be ahead of Vietnam on this race.

It’s weird that your currency is weakening despite trade surpluses, high foreign investment, abundant natural resources.

 

[Indos]

It’s weird that your currency is weakening despite trade surpluses.

Nope, since 2012 we get deficit, it gets better in 2019 and since beginning of 2020 until November we always get surplus alhamduliLLAH.