Indonesian government will start the construction of a 143 km railway line from Makassar to Parepare, both cities in South Sulawesi. The construction will be launchec in early July and the rail tracks will be deliverd by China.
We will commence building the railway line in early July, upon the completion of acquisition of private land needed for the railway line. For this project, the government had also decided to import railway tracks from China for delivery in September,” Director General of Railways of the Transportation Ministry Hermanto Dwi Atmoko said.
The first stage of the project includes the construction of 30 km railway section, and in the next stage will be build 70 km and then 43 km.
The project is projected to be complete by the end of 2017. However, the railway line will begin operating in 2018, when the procurement of locomotives has been realised.
“The procurement process will take two years because the tracks for the Trans-Sulawesi line are wider than that in Java, so the train capacity is bigger and can travel at a higher speed,” said Hermanto.
The locomotive procurement is expected to involve the private sector and state enterprises.
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