Staff Specialist Erick Thohir Predicts Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Train To Return To Capital After 40 Years: This Is Normal In Rail-Based Projects

Special Staff of the Ministry of SOEs, Arya Sinulingga. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The staff of the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Arya Sinulingga emphasized that the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project owned by PT Kereta Api Indonesia China (KCIC) was not a wasteful project. According to him, the project will return on investment after 40 years.

According to Arya, this is also the case with other rail-based infrastructure projects.

"Just check it on the MRT (mass rapid transit). How many years? It's similar, it won't be far from there in 40's. So if you say you will lose forever, that's ridiculous. Faisal Basri is very, very ridiculous, " he told reporters, quoted Friday, October 15.

Furthermore, Arya also explained that the construction of a rail or railway-based transportation mode project would not return the investment costs in a short time. According to him, this condition does not only occur in Indonesia but also other countries, including developed countries.

"And almost everything in the world is called railway, investment in trains, such a train must be long, it can't be short. And this is general like that. Almost all countries have low investment for companies, especially for the fast train business, MRT, yes that much ," he said.

Arya also regretted what Faisal Basri said. The senior economist at the University of Indonesia (UI) believes that the project is a waste and will not return on investment at any time.

"Faisal Basri is totally wrong. Those who say that it's impossible until whenever, there will always be a loss. Yes, where there is an investor who wants to enter with a loss condition. That's ridiculous. Faisal Basri is really ridiculous," he said.

Arya also regrets that Faisal's statement is not based on data. According to Arya, what Faisal said was only subjective, so there were no exact figures.

"And it looks like he doesn't use numbers, doesn't use analysis, only subjective things appear. So that's a big mistake. It's a shame that Faisal Basri said that. That's not true," he said.

According to Arya, there are no definite figures regarding the cost overrun or cost overrun for the construction of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project. Currently, the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) is conducting an audit of the cost overrun case.

In fact, the management of PT Kereta Api (Persero) has revealed that the swelling of KCJB reached 3.8 billion to 4.9 billion US dollars or equivalent to Rp. 54 trillion to Rp. 69 trillion.

"I need to say that we are still calculating. Wait a minute. The actual cost overrun appears. After being audited by BPKP, we can only know the actual figure," he said.

Previously, University of Indonesia (UI) senior economist Faisal Basri criticized a number of transportation infrastructure projects built by the government. The projects in question are airports, ports and high-speed trains.

Faisal said the infrastructure projects were considered redundant because they would not be profitable but the investment was very large. Therefore, he considered, the current government is very wasteful, it can even lead to state bankruptcy.

"The project was built that was not chaotic, the high-speed train project, which was previously business to business, will soon be injected with the state budget. Kertajati is better off as a cattle shed, Kuala Tanjung port is built near Belawan, Palembang LRT, just a few things that I have to say, So, in my opinion, the conclusion is that the top leadership has made a mistake," he said in a virtual discussion, Wednesday, October 13.