Chinese bullet trains to be utilized for Indonesia's Jakarta-Bandung route.
Photo taken on May 17, 2016 shows bullet trains in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Huang Xiaobang)
China's domestically produced bullet trains will be put to use in a high-speed railway project in Indonesia, according to a report by Caixin.
The report stated that the bullet trains will be assembled in Indonesia. The financing of the assembly plant is reportedly already underway
Sheng Guangzu, general manager of China Railway Corp. (CRC), said on Sept. 3 that China-made bullet trains will run along a high-speed rail route connecting Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, and the country's third-largest city, Bandung.
China's efforts to promote its high-speed technology have suffered a string of setbacks in recent years. Several overseas bids by Chinese rail companies in countries including the U.S. and Mexico have been scrapped, mainly due to red tape. Plans for the Jakarta-Bandung link also went through several rounds of changes before being awarded to a Chinese consortium led by CRC.
When the Southeast Asian nation floated a plan to build the country's first bullet train late last year, both China and Japan expressed interest in the project. However, the Indonesian government scrapped bids from both sides in September, saying that it wanted a rail link on which trains run at less than 250 kilometers per hour. Then, in an unexpected reversal, Indonesia chose China's bid over Japan's in October, accepting China's plan to build a link on which trains could run at speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour. This decision was made possible by the flexible funding options included in the Chinese bid.
To secure the deal, the consortium held a groundbreaking ceremony in January, even before Indonesian authorities had granted a construction license to the group. The license was later granted in August, after the group spent seven months negotiating with local governments for permission to expropriate land, a person close to the Chinese bidders told Caixin.
A Chinese bullet train, built according to Chinese standards and patents, completed its inaugural trip along the route in mid-August. A production permit will be issued by the National Railway Administration next year at the latest, a person close to CRC said.
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