Chinese Premier Li Qianq takes a test ride on Indonesia's new high-speed railway
abcnews.go.comChinese Premier Li Qiang has taken a test ride on Southeast Asia’s first high-speed railway, which connects two Indonesian cities as part of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Chinese Premier Li Qiang took a test ride Wednesday on Southeast Asia’s first high-speed railway, which connects two Indonesian cities as part of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
Li is visiting Jakarta for two days of talks with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations and other countries.
The $7.3 billion rail project, funded largely by China, connects Jakarta and Bandung, the heavily populated capital of West Java province. It is to begin commercial operations on Oct. 1 and will cut travel time between the two cities from the current three hours to about 40 minutes.
Li rode the train from Halim station in eastern Jakarta to the next station in West Java’s Karawang city, a 40-kilometer (25-mile) distance that took about 11 minutes. He was accompanied by Indonesian officials including the coordinating minister for maritime and investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.
“This is clear proof of modern, high-quality cooperation between the two countries,” Pandjaitan said.
Li then returned on the same train to Halim for the East Asia Summit in Jakarta, where he is attending meetings with Asian and Western leaders, including U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Construction of the rail line began in 2015. It was originally expected to begin operations in 2019, but was delayed by disputes over land acquisition, environmental issues and the COVID-19 pandemic. It was planned to cost
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