Chinese worker deaths on Indonesia rail site raise fresh safety concerns of belt and road project

Latest safety lapse to hit construction of Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, which has suffered delays, massive cost overruns and series of accidents

Incident under investigation but it is unclear whether construction on the line will be suspended pending the probe

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One of the construction sites on the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway in Purwakarta, Indonesia. The line is slated to open in June 2023. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 7:30pm, 20 Dec 2022

The deaths of two Chinese workers during construction of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway have revived worker safety concerns over a track which China and Indonesia insist is primed to drive growth across Southeast Asia’s largest economy despite delays, massive cost overruns and a litany of accidents.

The line, slated for opening in June 2023, will slash the travel time between the capital and the fourth-largest city Bandung, West Java, to 40 minutes.

It is the centrepiece in China’s Belt and Road Initiative strategy for Indonesia, and a test was witnessed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo on the sidelines of last month’s G20 summit.

But questions over the safety standards on the line reared up once more on Sunday after Indonesian police said a derailment had killed two Chinese workers and injured four others.

A high-speed passenger train at the construction site of the main depot for the Jakarta-Bandung railway in Bandung, Indonesia in October 2022. Photo: AP

The trains involved in the accident were not high-speed “but a series of working trains in the form of work locomotives and rail installation machine”, according to a statement released by PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China (KCIC), the joint venture between Indonesian and Chinese consortiums behind the project.

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