G20 Heads Of State Will Be Invited To See The Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Train Trial
JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said a number of G20 heads of state would be invited to see the operational trial of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train at the peak of the G20 summit series, next November.
"In November during the G20, the trial of this fast train can be carried out from Plered to Tegalluar. President Jokowi and several heads of state, perhaps President Xi Jinping and maybe also with Mohammed bin Zayed from Abu Dhabi will also see the trial later," said Coordinating Minister Luhut Pandjaitan was quoted by Antara, Friday, April 1.
Coordinating Minister Luhut said a few days earlier he had reviewed the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project and saw that the project would run well.
Luhut said that now there are no more problems related to development progress and funding. However, the overrun cost of the project is currently being audited by the Development and Finance Supervisory Agency (BPKP).
The Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project itself experienced an increase in costs to US$1.9 billion or around Rp.26.7 trillion due to construction or EPC and land acquisition. In addition to rising costs, the project was also forced to be delayed.
"The president yesterday gave directions, namely that the schedule should not be missed. The miss schedule on the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train is actually a geological problem, there is a very large spring in the tunnel, so it may be delayed maybe 3-4 months. So we are just hoping for that. it will be completed in June next year. We will try it, maybe it will be faster, but the worst case scenario is that," said Coordinating Minister Luhut.
Although it had been delayed, he confirmed that the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train would start testing at the end of 2022 and be able to operate in June 2023.
"There is nothing to worry about the schedule, because I and Mr. Menhub and Mr. Tiko (Wamen BUMN) are closely monitoring the progress," said Coordinating Minister Luhut.