Indonesia has started construction of South East Asia’s first high-speed rail link between Jakarta and the West Java provincial capital of Bandung.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the $5.5bn project was carried out by president Joko Widodo in Cikalong Wetan, West Java, which will be the location of one of the eight stations on the line.
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A joint venture between an Indonesian consortium and China Railway International, PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China is building the 142.3km high-speed rail line.
Construction of the project is expected to end in 2018, with the line scheduled to begin operations in 2019.
Following completion, the high-speed train system designed to run at 250km/h will be integrated at both ends with the Mass Rapid Transit in Jakarta and the Light Rail Transit system in Bandung.
A train ride from Jakarta to Bandung currently takes about three hours and the high-speed rail would reduce the journey time to 35 minutes.
Last September, China secured the contract over Japan as it offered to build the high-speed line without investments from the Indonesian Government.
The Jakarta-Bandung line is part of a 750km high-speed train network that would cut across four provinces on the main island of Java and end in Surabaya.
