Railway open for private companies

Railway open for private companies

JAKARTA (JP): Private investors can now participate in the construction and operation of railway networks.

The president of the state-owned railway company Perumka, Soemino Eko Saputro, said yesterday that several private companies have already submitted proposals for the construction and operation of railway networks in Sumatra.

"Six companies have proposed to participate in two railway network projects in Sumatra which will serve cargo transportation. We will study the proposals carefully as the business is very promising," he said. He refused to name the six companies.

Sumatra is well-known for its coal and plantation commodity production.

Soemino said that his company will probably offer two kinds of businesses cooperation with private firms: the revenue sharing contracts and joint operating schemes.

Chief of Perumka's planning, research and development center, Sjahrizal Siregar, said in a recent seminar that investment activities in railway transportation is currently limited to the development of infrastructure, rolling stock and other facilities.

However, he said cooperation could extend to the development of completely new networks, new network as extensions of the existing network and new networks running parallel to and connected with existing ones.

Other possible projects include new networks in the same corridor which are operated as separate systems, Sjahrizal said. He said the planned high-speed train service linking Jakarta and Surabaya, East Java, via Semarang in Central Java, was an example of this.

Soemino said that Perumka's revenues would have to increase as a result of joint operation projects with private firms.icn)