“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

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 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.

It was the latest safety lapse to strike the near-US$8 billion project [...]. In August 2020, a Chinese worker fell and died while installing an elevated pole in West Bandung regency. A year earlier, a misunderstanding contractors attributed to the language barrier between Indonesian and Chinese workers led to an explosion of pipes operated by state-owned oil firm Pertamina that run under some parts of the rail route.

Then, in December last year, a pier to support the railway collapsed onto an excavator in Karawang due to “negligence on the contractor’s side in following the standard operating procedure”, KCIC said at that time.

The line has also spectacularly overshot its budget since construction began in June 2018 in part due to the rocketing cost of acquiring land for the line.

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Bhima Yudhistira, executive director at Jakarta-based think tank Center for Economic and Law Studies, said Sunday’s incident underlined the risk of safety being compromised in the rush to complete a scheme running well over budget.

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