Not yet funds for high speed train project: Darmin

JAKARTA. Economic Coordinating Minister Darmin Nasution has said the China Development Bank (CDB) has not disbursed the funds to construct the high speed train project, connecting Jakarta and the West Java capital of Bandung because the land acquisition has not fully cleared.

“If the requirements are settled, the loan would be disbursed. The land acquisition should be completed first,” Darmin said in Jakarta on Tuesday as reported by tribunnews.com.

He stressed that lenders would require the debtors to complete all requirements before the fund could be disbursed.

Darmin did not explain the problem faced by the contractors in acquiring the remaining land, saying that State-owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno and himself were not involved in technical matters like land acquisition.

Previously, state-owned construction company PT Wijaya Karya, one of the contractors of the project, said the progress of land acquisition had reached about 85 percent of the total land to be used for the 142-kilometer railway project

Wijaya Karya finance director Antonius Kosasih said the contractors had been negotiating with CDB to disburse the fund, while the land acquisition was in the process.  

The ground-breaking ceremony for the railway was held in January 2016, but the US$5.9 billion project has gotten off to a slow start. Construction was initially scheduled to start in August, 2016.

The government has given the Indonesian-Chinese joint venture, Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC), a fixed concession period of 50 years starting on May 31, 2019, the initial deadline for the completion of the project.