Will The High Speed Train Continue To Surabaya? Erick Thohir: It's Up To President Jokowi's Government Whether To Continue Or Not

Minister of SOEs, Erick Thohir. (Photo: Doc. Ministry of SOEs)

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir said the government would still first complete the Jakarta-Bandung Fast Train (KCJB) project. Although on several previous occasions Erick and President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) revealed that they would continue the project to Surabaya, East Java.

"This fast train, I have made a statement that it must continue to Surabaya, there is my statement. The President also spoke the same thing, but the problem is that this one (Jakarta-Bandung) is not finished yet, is it time to continue," he said at the Kick Andy event. Show, quoted Tuesday, November 16.

Not only that, said Erick, the fate of the continuation of the high-speed rail project is also very dependent on the government after President Jokowi whether to continue this project or not to continue its construction.

Furthermore, Erick said that currently there is no state policy outline or GBHN that ensures the continuation of the construction of the high-speed rail project after the end of the Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin administration.

"Of course the next government will do it or not, we don't know. That's why we lost like in the past the GBHN or Repelita, in the end we didn't build continuously," he said.

For your information, the high-speed rail project has recently been in the spotlight after the cost overrun was estimated at US$1.4 to 1.9 billion. The swelling funding prompted the Wah government to finally revise the regulations in order to be able to convey capital through the state budget (APBN) for the project.

The decision is contained in Presidential Regulation (Perpres) Number 93 of 2021. In fact, the Fast Train project, which involves two countries, namely Indonesia and China, is planned to be built without an injection of state capital.

Special Staff to the Minister of SOEs, Arya Sinulingga, spoke about the swelling financing for the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Train (KCJB) project. According to him, the cost overrun on the project is a natural thing. Arya revealed that the budget swelling was due to a design change.

Furthermore, Arya said budget changes are not new. According to him, in several infrastructure projects such as toll road construction, budget increases also often occur.

"Swelling is a natural thing. It's called early development and so on, it makes things a bit hampered. So, everywhere the previous setbacks will increase costs," he told reporters, Sunday, October 10.

In addition, Arya also denied that the budget expansion had been planned. He emphasized that the swelling occurred due to adjusting to geological and geographical conditions. One of them is the price of land.

According to Arya, the increase in land prices is something that cannot be avoided. Moreover, this project started in 2016.

"There is an increase in prices. It is natural that this happens. In almost all developments that we have carried out, there have always been changes there that have caused an increase in the budget," he said.

According to Arya, the budget changes in the continuation of the development of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train so that the project can be completed. The progress of the project has reached 80 percent.