Judging By The Profits Of The High Speed Train Continued To Surabaya

Illustration of theICKish High Speed Train. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

YOGYAKARTA The Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project will continue to Surabaya. The Jakarta-Surabaya high-speed rail project has even been proposed to enter the National Strategic Project (PSN). Check out the profit and loss of the high-speed train to be continued to Surabaya.

Previously, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan stated that the Indonesian government had entered into an agreement with China for the Jakarta-Surabaya high-speed rail project.

Luhut also revealed the reason President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) chose China to work on the project. According to him, the interest offered by the Bamboo Curtain Country is cheaper than other countries.

Pak Jokowi wants the Jakarta Surabaya high-speed train to continue. Earlier I heard that the agreement with China was also running. In fact, the interest is much cheaper than the interest offered by other countries," he said, quoted from the Instagram account @luhut.pandjaitan, Wednesday, November 1, 2023.

Luhut said that China's technology can also be proven to make Indonesia have a high-speed train.

"We have proven it and we already have experience. This is the first key problem, this is land acquisition that is not clear. Now that we have experience, we don't have a problem anymore," Luhut continued.

Originally, the discourse to continue the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project to Surabaya had emerged since a few months ago.

However, the government did not clearly include the project into the 2020-2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN).

Based on documents published by the National Planning and Development Agency (Bappenas), the Jakarta-Surabaya High Speed Rail project only entered half. The government only included phase I, namely from Jakarta-Semarang, into the 2020-2024 RPJMN.

The government reasoned that the high urbanization in big cities has not been balanced with the availability of high-speed train connectivity. Therefore, it takes a high-speed train to serve passengers in the inter-city metropolitan corridor.

If the Jakarta-Surabaya high-speed rail project is realized, the Jakarta-Surabaya trip can be reached within 3.5 hours.

That way, the Jakarta-Surabaya High Speed Train can be used as an alternative for air transportation which is considered too crowded. The government claims that the Jakarta-Surabaya flight frequency can reach 150 aircraft movements per day and it is estimated that there are 3.8 million seats in flights per year.

On the other hand, the construction of the Jakarta-Surabaya high-speed train is expected to cost a lot of money.

For information, the total investment value needed for the construction of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train reached 7.27 billion US dollars or equivalent to Rp108.14 trillion after the cost overrun.

Initially, the total cost required to build the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Train was USD 6.07 billion. However, on its way, this project experienced a cost overrun of USD 1.2 billion (around IDR 18.02 trillion).

If, the high-speed rail project continues to Surabaya, it is certain that the funds disbursed will be even greater.

As a parable, the budget for the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project of IDR 108.14 trillion was used for the construction of high-speed trains with a track of only 142.3 kilometers connecting Halim and Gedebage.

If such a large fund is used for other infrastructure development such as toll roads, then funds amounting to Rp108.14 trillion can be used to build the 1,081 kilometer Trans Sumatra Toll Road.

Assuming the Trans Sumatra toll road project requires IDR 100 billion per kilometer of funds.

"If calculated, the cost per kilometer is IDR 90 billion-IDR 110 billion. What is the budget requirement? Very big," said Jokowi, quoted from the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube channel.

The Trans Sumatra Toll Road project connects Lampung at the tip of East Andalas and Aceh, which are located in the westernmost part of Indonesia. Both are more than 2,000 kilometers adrift.

With the large investment value needed for the Jakarta-Surabaya high-speed rail project, it would be better if the government took advantage of these funds for infrastructure development in other areas, especially outside Java so that there is no inequality that is too far away.

This is information about the profit-loss of the fast train to be continued to Surabaya. Get news updates on other options only on VOI.ID.