Japan joins FS for Jakarta-Surabaya railway

JAKARTA. Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Tuesday that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had joined the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology in conducting a feasibility study on the Jakarta-Surabaya railway project.

“The Japanese government has expressed its intention to be more involved in [projects],” said Luhut after meeting with representatives of JICA in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Ridwan Djamaludin, who is in charge of infrastructure coordination at the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister, said the feasibility study would also involve experts from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), the Diponegoro University (Undip) and the 10 November Institute of Technology (ITS).

The study is expected to answer a number of questions related to the project, including the speed of the trains, the technology to be used and whether new tracks are needed or the train will use the existing tracks.

Earlier this year, the government decided to appoint Japan as its main partner in developing the railway connection between the two cities. The project is expected to increase train speeds to 160 kilometer per hour from the current 90 km/h.

The government is also still mulling whether the train will be powered by diesel, which would cost some Rp 30 trillion (US$2.2 billion), or electricity, which would cost Rp 80 trillion.

Japan lost to China in the project for a high-speed railway connecting Jakarta and Bandung, West Java. (dis/bbn)