Indonesia to Buy Train Engines as Railway Expansion Gains Steam
- Country needs 400 new engines and 5,000 wagons, minister says
- Chinese-built high-speed train won't hurt budget, Jonan says
A train passes a rice paddy field on the site of a planned coal-fired power station as a protest flag flies on a pole in Ponowareng village in Batang regency, Central Java province, Indonesia, on Tuesday, April 28, 2015. For President Joko Widodo, a plan to build a $4 billion Japanese-Indonesian coal-fired power station presents a dilemma. He needs the electricity from new plants to power factories that would fuel growth and help rebalance the economy away from natural resources. At the same time, he needs to avoid alienating farmers and poor Indonesians who swept him into office last year.
Photographer: Dimas Ardian/BloombergIndonesia will purchase around 400 locomotive engines from either General Electric Co. or Electro-Motive Diesel Inc. as it expands its rail network, the transport minister said.
The government’s progress toward a target of building 3,258 kilometers (2,025 miles) of new track by mid-2019 has been slow so far, but it remains achievable, said Ignasius Jonan, in an interview last week. In 2015, the government built 250 kilometers, and it is planning to quicken the pace with up to 700 kilometers more this year, he said.