TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Department of Industrial Product Design of ITS, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), PT INKA, and LPDP collaborated on the development of the Jakarta-Surabaya high-speed train prototype and design. The high-speed train is targeted to finish production by 2025, with the trial starting the year after that.

Agus Widharto, the research leader and a lecturer at ITS explained that the design and prototype process started in 2019, funded by LPDP amounting to Rp4.895 billion. The time limit set by the agency was three years, albeit the project only finished in 2022 due to COVID-19. "Now it's finished from the side of the steering line, starting from the front to back, and the interior and exterior," he said as quoted from PLDP RI's official YouTube account on Monday, October 9, 2023.

The 5-minute and 2-second video also shows that the design and prototype studies include the envelope cabin and cockpit design, human factor engineering and ergonomic study, aerodynamics test, and the design and test of the carbody structures.

According to Agus, the Jakarta-Surabaya high-speed rail will cut down the time needed to travel between both cities into a mere 3-hour and 40-minute trip from the usual 12 to 13 hours. Thus, Agus added, the high-speed train will prompt an acceleration of technological mastership across all stakeholders.

The project is creating a new perspective on the Indonesian railways sector, Agus said, which will lessen the country's dependency on imported products. "The majority of our executive class seats are imported still, as do the sleeper seats. But we are able to develop them domestically," Agus remarked.

Meanwhile, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi stated that the blue-print for Jakarta-Surabaya High-Speed Train has been drafted as mandated by the President. "We were instructed to design the blue-print from Bandung to Surabaya. Of course, what we created was a concept to extend the fundamental transformation of the high-speed train," the minister said on Sunday in Surabaya.

MOH KHORY ALFARIZI | ANTARA

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