Indonesia scraps bullet train, seeks new bids from China, Japan
[JAKARTA] Indonesia is asking Japan and China for new bids for a major rail link as a US$6 billion high-speed train is no longer seen as commercially viable, the minister coordinating transport policy said.
A 200-kilometer (120 mile) per hour locomotive between the capital and the third-biggest city Bandung would be 30 per cent to 40 per cent cheaper than a bullet train, Rizal Ramli said in an interview Thursday with Bloomberg News, his first with international media since taking office last month. The need for new proposals will delay the decision by several weeks, he said.
China and Japan have been lobbying Indonesia's government for the contract for a high-speed train, which would be the biggest infrastructure project started by President Joko Widodo. The president, who took office last year vowing to overhaul railways and ports in the world's largest archipelago, has made little progress.
"We don't need a high-speed train but a medium-speed one," Mr Ramli said after meeting other ministers. "Japan and China are competing very hard, we should let them compete to the maximum.
"
"
No comments:
Post a Comment