Liu Bo, Party secretary and chairman of China Railway No.4 Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (CREC4), has attended the official start of the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway in Indonesia.
As a signature link of the Belt and Road Initiative, the 142.3-kilometer-long HSR, linking Indonesia’s capital city and the country’s fourth largest city of Bandung, officially started its operation on September 7, 2023.
As the first high-speed railway in Indonesia as well as in Southeast Asia, the $8-billion Jakarta-Bandung HSR is Chinese HSR’s first systemic footprint overseas, incorporating whole supply chains. The 142.3-kilometer-long HSR, with a maximum design speed of 350 kilometers per hour for the trains, is jointly built by China and Indonesia, and under construction by PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China, a consortium involving Indonesia’s State-owned companies and China’s centrally-administered State-owned enterprises.
The Jakarta-Bandung HSR has four newly-built railway stations (Halifax Station in Jakarta Urban Area, and Karawang, Walini and Tegal Luar stations in West Java) and one engine car station. CREC4 builders constructed27.55 km of the line, covering railway bridges, Tegal Luar station and Tegal Luar engine car station.
The HSR fully started its construction in June 2018, is expected to start operation in the first half of 2023. On November 16, 2022, the HSR ushered in its successful trial operation.
Java Island, on which the Jakarta-Bandung HSR runs, is Indonesia’s fifth largest island, and also the most populous and densely populated one in Indonesia. With the operation of the HSR, the travel time between Jakarta and Bandung will be slashed from more than three hours to 40 minutes, thus largely alleviating the intercity traffic congestion, facilitating local resident’s travel and helping optimize the local investment environment.