KAI Pledges To Finish Land Clearing For Airport Railway

Jakarta (Antara Bali)- State-owned railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) pledged to finish land clearing this year for use by the Soekarno Hatta airport railway project.

"What is most important is to finish land clearing. My target is to finish it this year," KAI president director Edi Sukmoro said here on Sunday.

Edi said land clearing was already 92 percent completed, adding negotiations are to be concluded only with 100 of 800 families involved.  

The dispute with the land owners has been brought to court, which is expected to give its final verdict by the end of this year.

The lands needed for the ling awaited  project is 36.3 hectares not including land used by 24.2 kilometers of existing tracks.  

"There should be no problem in civil works  to build the track. The only problem is land clearing," Edi said.

PT KAI already paid Rp50.4 billion in compensation for 36 land pieces totaling 9,723 square meters.

The railway track linked with the Manggarai station in South Jakarta is 36.5 kilometer long with stopover in the stations of Sudimara Baru, Duri,  and Batu Ceper to be covered in 58 minutes.

Everyday, 10  trains would serve 124 trips  between Manggarai and the airport stations by Railink  as the operator.

A train would consist of 6 to 10 coaches that could carry 33,000 passengers from the airport every day.

Construction of the airport railway has been long delayed since the previous government.  The contractors have been changed several times. (WDY)