Jokowi to Inaugurate Indonesia's First High-speed Train Today
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2 October 2023 08:11 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian President Joko Widodo or Jokowi was scheduled to inaugurate the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train (KCJB), which is officially named Whoosh, today, October 2, 2023.
The inauguration ceremony was postponed one day from the original schedule. “The President was busy on October 1,” Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi told journalists in Jakarta on Friday, September 29, 2023.
Developed in tandem with China, the first bullet train in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia can carry more than 600 people to and from Jakarta and Bandung of West Java in 45 minutes. The project is part of China's Belt and Road Initiative.
With speeds reaching up to 350 kilometers per hour, or 220 miles per hour, the train cost more than US$7 billion by the joint venture between China and Indonesia. The project was governed by PT KCIC, which was composed of four state-owned companies, and Beijing-based Railway International Co.
The Transportation Ministry issued the operating license for the bullet train on Tuesday, September 26, 2023, through the Minister’s Decree Number KM 114 of 2023. Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said Whoosh has met the operational feasibility aspects of high-speed trains.
“Thank God, all testing and certification components have been passed so this operating permit can be issued, and the commercial operations can be carried out immediately,” he said in a written statement on Sunday, October 1, 2023.
DANIEL A. FAJRI
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