Indonesia abandons high speed rail line project

Indonesia has unexpectedly abandoned plans for its first high-speed railway in favour of a slower rail option. The high-speed rail line was supposed to connect Jakarta with the mountain city of Bandung about 160 kilometres away. This is a project that Japan and China have been fiercely competing to win.
President Joko Widodo was expected to announce the winning bid for the multi-billion dollar infrastructure project, but instead he concluded that a medium-speed rail option was better value, saving 30 percent on costs. His chief economics minister, Darmin Nasution, told the Japanese ambassador that the project had been shelved. “Both proposals extended by our government and the Chinese government are not accepted,” Japanese ambassador Tanizaki Yasuaki told reporters.