JAKARTA, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- About 99 percent of the land compensation for the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Railway (HSR) have been settled, paving the way for the landmark transportation project to operate by 2021, Indonesia's West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said on Tuesday.
"The land acquisition (for the project) has accounted 99.06 percent as the construction works have reached 36.01 percent at present. So, the operation schedule remains unchanged in 2021," Kamil said on the sidelines of a meeting.
The governor of the province that largely hosts the HSR project said a set of incentives including tax holiday and discount scheme to rent the state's land property have also been prepared to attract and facilitate investors willing to take part in the project.
Chandra Dwiputra who is the managing director of KCIC which is the company operating the Indonesia fast train network, said immediate settlement of land compensation for the Jakarta-Bandung HSR project is a prioritized task to ensure that the whole planned works can be done on schedule.
"Currently we are focusing on our efforts to settle problems that involve external parties, like land acquisition, so as to minimize the hurdles from the administration process," the executive of the China-Indonesia joint firm to run the project.
Apart from the land acquisition and the project's daily activities, KCIC also prepares local workers to run the HSR train that uses unprecedented technology in the country.
The Jakarta-Bandung HSR is a flagship China-Indonesia joint project under the Belt and Road Initiative which has been highly promoted by leaders of the two nations.
The HSR train will slash trip time between the two cities from the existing three hours to just 46 minutes. The high-speed train will boost the economy of areas alongside its corridor and greatly promote tourism in Indonesia.
Expansion of more railway tracks enabling HSR trains to serve more Indonesian cities has been planned.
Indonesia will be the first country in Southeast Asia to operate the high-speed train when it commences the operation in 2021.
