Chinese and Indonesian state-owned companies have signed a USD 5.5 billion deal to build the first high-speed railway in Southeast Asia’s top economy, after Beijing beat Tokyo to win the construction project. The line will connect the Indonesian capital Jakarta with the mountain-fringed city of Bandung, some 160 kilometres away, and is a key part of President Joko Widodo’s plans to overhaul the archipelago’s infrastructure and attract investors.

Japan was long expected to build the railway but China entered the contest earlier this year, and Tokyo’s bid was rejected last month after a chaotic bidding process that infuriated the Japanese. State-owned China Development Bank will provide 75 per cent of the funding, with the rest coming from the Chinese railway company and Indonesian consortium.

The railway line will not need any financing from the Indonesian government, nor a government guarantee.  The high-speed train route will cover eight stations from Jakarta to Bandung, and the train will travel at around 250 kilometres (150 miles) an hour.  China has built thousands of kilometres of high-speed railway in recent years, but its safety standards have come under scrutiny – a 2011 crash killed at least 40 people and injured about 200.

Did You Know?

• Japan was the first country to build dedicated railway lines for high-speed travel.
• The Shinkansen is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan operated by four Japan Railways Group companies

• The maximum operating speed is 320 km/h (200 mph). The nickname bullet train is sometimes used in English for these high-speed trains.
• The original Tōkaidō Shinkansen, connecting the largest cities of Tokyo and Osaka, is the world’s busiest high-speed rail line.

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