Premier visits landmark rail project in Indonesia

Premier Li Qiang visited a section of the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway in Java, Indonesia, on Wednesday and learned about the progress of the landmark project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

Accompanied by Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Indonesia's coordinator for cooperation with China and coordinating minister for maritime affairs and investment, Li, who is on an official visit to Indonesia, boarded the express train from Halim station in Jakarta.

With a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour, the rail route covering 142.3 km will cut the journey time between Jakarta and Bandung from over three hours to around 40 minutes. It is the first high-speed railway in Southeast Asia. The current fastest railway in Southeast Asia is the Laos-China Railway, with a top speed of 160 km per hour.

Li was briefed about the construction, commissioning and test runs of the project, which is expected to start operations soon. The high-speed railway is in effect the first overseas construction project that fully uses Chinese railway systems, technologies and industrial components.