Japan has Approved the Jakarta-Surabaya Railway Project

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said that Japan has approved the Jakarta-Surabaya medium-speed railway project financing scheme under the private-public partnership (PPP).

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[quote font_size=”16″ arrow=”yes”]”We decided to go with the scheme so that it won’t burden the State Budget,” [/quote]Luhut said in Jakarta last week.

According to Luhut, the public-private partnership scheme was suggested by the National Development Planning Agency head Bambang Brodjonegoro. Based on a calculation made by the Japanese government, as much as US$7.8 billion is necessary to complete the project. However, the Indonesian government estimated that the project could be realized with US$6.1 billion.

The Transportation Ministry and state railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) have completed the preliminary study for the project. The government decided to use electrical system for the medium-speed railway project.

Luhut revealed that the medium-speed train could travel as fast as 160 kilometers per hour, that could shorten the travel time from Jakarta to Surabaya to five hours.