Staff Of Erick Thohir Calls The Cost Of The Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Rail Project To Add IDR 26.6 Trillion Due To Changes In Design

Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train. (Photo: Doc. KCIC)

JAKARTA - Special Staff to the Minister of SOEs Erick Thohir, 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.

As is known, the financing for the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project has increased to 7.97 billion dollars or equivalent to Rp. 26.6 trillion. Initially, this project was calculated to cost 6.07 billion dollars through the cooperation of the Indonesian and Chinese governments.

Therefore, the government is known to allocate funds in the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) for the project. The decision is contained in Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 93 of 2021.

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. That is natural. In almost all developments that we have carried out, since the beginning there must have been changes there that have caused an increase in the budget," he said again.

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

Not only that, Arya explained that the COVID-19 pandemic conditions for almost the last two years in Indonesia had hampered the project.

A number of companies that are members of the consortium for the high-speed rail project are in bad financial condition.

"Well, the problem is that COVID-19 is coming and we want this development to be on time. Don't be delayed. And COVID has come which has made things a bit hampered. Shareholders like WIKA have had their cash flow disrupted because we know about COVID, "Development is also hampered a lot. Then our trains because of COVID the passengers all fell, so they couldn't deposit the funds according to what was prepared in the plan without COVID," he said.

Kat Arya, the same thing happened at Jasa Marga. According to him, the decline in company performance as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic is not only happening in Indonesia. Therefore, his party also asked the government to be directly involved in the project. Arya said that the government's involvement in the construction of high-speed rail projects is also experienced by many countries.

"So, only yesterday because of the corona problem that made everything hampered. So don't twist it, there are other things and so on," he said.

Arya stressed that the Jakarta-Bandung Railway project is very important. Because every developed country or modern country needs a fast train. This is the basis for the presence of the project in the country.