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The Jakarta-Bandung Rail Project: 5 Years On and Still Going Nowhere

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The Debate | Opinion | Southeast Asia

The Jakarta-Bandung Rail Project: 5 Years On and Still Going Nowhere

The railway, China’s landmark BRI project in Indonesia, has failed to account for its economic and social impacts.

The Jakarta-Bandung Rail Project: 5 Years On and Still Going Nowhere

A segment of the railway currently linking Jakarta and Bandung.

Credit: Flickr/Badia Harrison

Five years ago, Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo awarded the $5.5 billion Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Rail project to a company from China. At the time, the project was hailed as a major win for Beijing, one that bolstered its  Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) dream in Indonesia. Today, however, the project has turned into a nightmare, resulting in forced evictions, flooded roads, damaged houses and farmland, mass protests, and massive budget overruns, not to mention violations of at least six Indonesian laws. Despite an original May 2019 completion deadline, the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Rail project is still going nowhere.

How did this happen, for such a high-profile project that enjoyed strong Indonesian government backing and Chinese financial support? Who bears responsibility? And ultimately, how can the Indonesian public believe China’s claims of a “green” BRI, when this supposed flagship project was crippled by many serious (and foreseeable) environmental and social flaws? If this rail project represented China’s ability to make good on its green BRI promises, then the current situation demonstrates its categorical failure to do so.

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