PHOTO
Track laying on the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train, a major project under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has been completed, with full-line operation to start soon, according to Power Construction Corp of China (PowerChina), responsible for the track-laying task.
The high-speed line will connect Jakarta and Bandung, state-owned CTGN said, citing a company statement.
The project follows Chinese standard high-speed rails, with a total usage of about 38,100 tonnes of rails, said PowerChina.
The 142-kilometre high-speed railway is built with Chinese technology and has a design speed of 350 km/ hour. It will cut the journey between Jakarta and Bandung from over three hours to around 40 minutes on completion.
In February, Indonesia and China agreed to a budget overrun of $1.2 billion for the first high-speed railway project.
The project was previously estimated to be $2 billion over budget, raising the total cost to $7.36 billion, according to PT KCIC, the consortium of Indonesian and Chinese state companies building the railway.
(Writing by P Deol; Editing by Anoop Menon)
