In the next eleven days, ships carrying Indonesian-made railroad cars will dock to Chitagong Port, Bangladesh. There are 22 train cars made by PT Industri Kereta Api (INKA) (Persero) which were sent to Bangladesh. This means, until the end of October 2019, PT INKA has sent 116 trains from a total of 250 trains ordered by Bangladesh.

“The 116 exported trains are a combination of 50 BG (broad gauge) trains and 66 MG (meter gauge) trains ,” said PT INKA (Persero) Director Budi Noviantoro, Saturday (10/26).

A total of 22 MG-type trains will depart on Sunday (27/10) from the Jamrud Pier, Tanjung Perak Surabaya, and it takes around 11 days to arrive at Chitagong Port, Bangladesh. According to Managing Director of PT INKA (Persero) Budi Noviantoro, the 22 trains are expected to arrive on November 7, 2019. After arriving, the train will be operated by Bangladesh Railways.

The difference between BG and MG type trains lies in the width of the track (rail) used. BG type trains are used on the tracks with a width of 1,676 millimeters. While the MG type train is used on the tracks with a width of 1,000 millimeters.

The export to Bangladesh is a series of efforts by PT INKA (Persero) to increase its export market abroad. Previously, INKA had also fulfilled other overseas train orders, such as Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Australia.

“Hopefully by the end of this year we can have a contract for the export of trains to Sri Lanka,” Budi concluded.

Source : PT INKA’s website

JAKARTA – Indonesia and Japan signed a deal Tuesday on an outline of a medium-speed train project linking the Southeast Asian country’s capital of Jakarta and its second-largest city, Surabaya.

After two years of negotiations, the two countries agreed to use a narrow gauge on the railway track, instead of standard gauge, to better adapt to land characteristics in dense and multi-networked areas on the island of Java.

Under the agreement, the project will be split into two phases, with the first between Jakarta and the Central Java provincial capital of Semarang and the second between Semarang and Surabaya, the capital of East Java province, covering distances of 436 km and 284 km, respectively.

Both Indonesian and Japanese officials have said the initial investment value of the project was estimated at 60 trillion rupiah (¥458 billion).

In an interview with Kyodo News a couple months ago, President Joko Widodo said he expected construction of the railway to start next year.

Indonesia’s Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology has predicted that 12.4 percent of airline passengers between the two cities, which totaled around 8 million last year, will shift to the trains.

Last year, a “political decision” was made by the government to have only Indonesian and Japanese companies participate in the tender to build the railway network.

Indonesia has been leaning toward choosing Japan for the project in an apparent effort to ease Tokyo’s disappointment at losing to China in 2015 in bidding to construct a high-speed railway between Jakarta and Bandung.

Source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/09/24/business/indonesia-japan-reach-deal-%C2%A5458-billion-jakarta-surabaya-rail-project/#.XZFlmkYzaUl