Indonesian high-speed railway project on track despite COVID-19

Specifically, the number of COVID-19 cases in West Java reached 3,878 with the death toll increasing to 182 on Thursday. Meanwhile, the number of cases in the capital city of Jakarta reached 13,211 with the death toll reaching 665 on Thursday.

West Java recently announced that the province decided not to extend its large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), also known as a partial lockdown policy, after seeing the virus' basic reproduction rate (R0) remain under 1 over the past six weeks.

The province's governor Ridwan Kamil said authorities have been focusing more on conducting tests in areas prone to COVID-19 outbreaks.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta administration is still implementing "transitional" PSBB that serves as an early chapter of Jakarta's new normal, in which the province's governor Anies Baswedan said would only be applied to strategic sectors with manageable risks.

Under the new health and safety measures implemented at the Jakarta-Bandung HSR project, the High-Speed Railway Contractor Consortium (HSRCC) has completed several projects during the first half of 2020.

They include the 735-meter-long Tunnel No 3 bored through on April 26, as well as the 422-meter Tunnel No 5 with its drilling completed on March 12.

"The construction projects have been advanced in a safe and orderly manner, reflecting the high standards and good image of the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Railway construction," HSRCC's project director Xiao Songxin told Xinhua.

The Jakarta-Bandung HSR has a total length of 142.3 km, comprising 13 tunnels, and trains will run at a designed speed of 350 km per hour. It is the first of its kind in Indonesia as well as in Southeast Asia.

The traveling time from Jakarta to Bandung will be reduced from more than three hours to just half an hour, which will great help spur economic activities along the line between the two cities.