As we know that HSR (High Speed Train) is one of the modern transportation in this century. which allows us to travel hundreds of kilometers in just minutes comfortably. and in an increasingly efficient and fast our society, especially in business then the choice of fast transportation such as HSR is the right one.
however, for a country building an HSR is not an easy thing, there are many big troublesome obstacles. mainly is the enormous cost constraint required for a country to build an HSR on its territory. to construct per kilometer of the HSR could cost millions of dollars. so that we can see that the majority of countries that have HSR are those that have strong economies.
here the following list of the HSR construction costs per kilometer in each country.
as we can see in the table that the cost of developing HSR is very big so it is kinda difficult for countries in the Southeast Asian region where the majority are still in the developing economy category to build it.
However, due to the desire to develop the economy and catch up with developed countries in the Asian region, in 2015 Indonesia cooperated with China to build the first HSR in Indonesia as well as the first in Southeast Asia. this project is B to B without government guarantee. Indonesia and China formed a joint venture called KCIC to work on this project. where Indonesia has 60% shares and China 40%. The HSR project will connect the 2 largest cities in Indonesia, Jakarta-Bandung, which is 142.3 km away and takes only 35 minutes.
This project was originally targeted to be completed in 2019 but due to some problems such as land acquisition and the increasing of project costs where previously it was only $ 5.9 billion but increased by $ 6.07 billion then the trade war between China and the USA also made the flow funding from China has been hampered for this project. so the HSR project was delayed for several years. and did not make any significant progress.
Entering the period of 2019 - now, the construction of HSR has begun to be carried out massively again, and now it has reached 65% and it is targeted to be operational by the end of this year or at the latest in early 2022.
When the HSR construction is completed it will be a milestone in the history of railways not only in Indonesia but also in the Southeast Asia region. because for the first time the HSR was finally able to advance in this region. and I believe this first HSR project will also certainly boost the emergence of similar projects later in this region.
image by : @project.hope