CONSTRUCTION work on the Jakarta to Bandung high speed railway is making progress, and on March 12 there was a ceremony to mark the breakthrough on another of the tunnels along the route.

The tunnel is the second to be completed by one of the main contractors, China Railway Group Limited (CREC), along the 142 kilometre railway route in West Java Province.

The No. 5 tunnel has a full length of 422 metres. In May last year, the 608 metre Walini tunnel, the first of 13 underground passages along the railway track, was built.

CREC, which is listed on both the Shanghai and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges, is part of the PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China (KCIC) consortium, along with four local partners.

China Development Bank has provided a US$4.5 billion loan to support the project, which has an estimated total cost of US$6 billion. It has encountered delays, some associated with land acquisition, and is running behind schedule, having originally had a completion target of 2019.

The railway will be serviced by Chinese built Fuxing high speed trains with a maximum speed of 350 kilometres an hour. The railway project will serve four main stations: Halim in Jakarta, Karawang in West Java and Walini and Tegaluar in Bandung regency. A total of 80 kilometres of the railway will be elevated, while there will be 16.9 kilometres of tunnels.