Govt told to speed up railway construction

Nana Rukmana , The Jakarta Post, Cirebon, West Java

The House of Representatives' transportation commission urged the government on Wednesday to speed up the double tracking of the Cikampek-Haurgeulis-Cirebon railway line in West Java.

Currently, constructing is underway on the 54-kilometer-long Cikampek-Haurgeulis section of the line, and this will be followed by work on the Haurgeulis-Cirebon section.

"The government must keep its promise to complete it by the end of this year," said Sumaryoto, the chairman of the transportation commission, while inspecting the preparations made by the local government here for this year's Idul Fitri exodus.

The project has been underway since last year. The funding for the work comes from loans provided by the government of China amounting to Rp 400 billion (US$47 million).

Sumaryoto said that the construction of the double track railway would need to be completed soon in order to improve rail transportation on Java's north coast line.

The north coast line has been congested for years, especially during the Idul Fitri holidays.

Idul Fitri this year falls on Nov. 25 and Nov. 26.

Hundreds of thousands of people from Jakarta usually return to their respective hometowns in Central Java, East Java and other areas to celebrate the holidays, and this leads to massive road and rail congestion.

Meanwhile, Sumaryoto pointed to another reason why the construction of the railway had to be completed soon.

"The government has to accept responsibility for use of the loans that it obtained from the government of China.

"The Indonesian government told them that it would complete the construction of the double tracking project this year, and the government has to keep this promise," Sumaryoto told reporters here.