BANDUNG, June 20 (EngineeringDaily) -- Next year looks to be a banner year for the Indonesian railway system. The Directorate General of Railways for the Indonesian Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) has pledged to build a number of new railway lines in the year 2015, with funding support coming from the state budget (APBN) for a total amount of Rp 14.5 trillion (USD 1.2 billion).

Hermanto Dwiatmoko, Director General of Railways, said the Ministry is slated to receive a total allocation of Rp 45 trillion (USD 3.75 billion) from the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget in 2015. A large portion of the allocation will go to sectors related to the railways, such as the management and delivery of railway transport.

In addition to maintaining the existing railway system, many new building projects are planned for 2015, including the Trans-Sumatra railway infrastructure development. This project will be fully funded by the Ministry with an allocation of around Rp 9 trillion (USD 750 million), the highest funding scheduled for any single project next year.

The Trans-Sumatra project consists of the construction of new railway lines in South Sumatra, West Sumatra, and North Sumatra. The project will begin with the South Sumatra line. In addition to this project, new railway lines will also be built in Java, and one project is the planned development of the electric train (KRL) in the Yogyakarta region.
A few of the scheduled projects will be started but not fully completed in the year 2015. For instance, there is a plan to build a railway line in Sulawesi, through Makassar and Pare-pare, but as the total funding for this project is not yet certain, construction of these projects will be completed in three years, from 2015- 2017.

Director Dwiatmoko explained that further information on the Sulawesi project will be released later this year. "This plan is not yet final. In October it will be published. There will still be changes. We will see later in October. So just wait," he said.

In regards to the amount of money allocated for the railway construction, Head of the Public Communication Centre of the Transportation Ministry, J.A. Barata, said the railway sector has received the largest share of the transportation budget for 2015. It will be used to push for the development of new railway lines and a double track rail line along 116.45 km of existing rail lines. He hopes the funds will serve to enhance the Indonesian railway system in terms of improvement and reliability.

By Ismail Al Anshori