China Belt and Road: Indonesia opens Whoosh high-speed railway

Indonesia has inaugurated its first high-speed railway, a $7.3bn (£5.9) project backed by China under its Belt and Road Initiative.

President Joko Widodo launched the service, which connects the capital Jakarta to Bandung, a top economic hub.

The railway is named Whoosh, a Bahasa Indonesia acronym that translates to time-saving and reliable.

Mr Widodo has prioritised projects like Whoosh to ease the country’s severe traffic jams.

The railway was originally scheduled to open in 2019 but was delayed due to land disputes, the Covid-19 pandemic and a $1.2bn (£984m) budget overrun.

Monday’s inauguration was pushed back from Sunday to accommodate Mr Jokowi’s schedule.

Whoosh is operated by PT KCIC, a joint-venture made up of four Indonesian state companies and Beijing’s China Railway International.

Its name is short for “Waktu Hemat, Operasi Optimal, Sistem Handal”, or “Timesaving, Optimal Operation, Reliable System” in the local language. It can reach speeds of up to 350km/h (217mph) with the journey spanning 142km.

Indonesian officials say the high-speed railway is expected to improve economic productivity. They also tout the fact that the trains are powered by electricity, which will help reduce the country’s carbon emissions.

Bandung, the capital of West Java province, is touted as Indonesia’s answer to Silicon Valley.

There are talks to extend Woosh to Surabaya, a major port city and capital of East Java province.

Some critics say the sheer cost of the project may weigh on Indonesia’s public finances, which are already strained by the pandemic. Mr Jokowi agreed to use state funds to help the project overcome delays.

The project is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s 10-year-old Belt and Road initiative, an ambitious plan to connect Asia with Africa and Europe through a series of land and sea networks via investments in local infrastructure.

Indonesia, South-east Asia’s largest economy, has been actively seeking investments from China, its largest trade partner.