Indonesia: Residents whose houses were affected by tunnel blast for Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project await problem-solving
(Video report) “Fear, Hope, Disappointment Linked to Indonesia-China Rail Project”, March 06, 2023
Every day for the past two years, Heru Sutanto says he has felt anxious. He lives in Padalarang, a city in the Indonesian Province of West Java, situated some 136 kilometers (85 miles) from the nation’s capital, Jakarta.
Heru Sutanto, Padalarang Resident: This is what I'm really worried about… if it shifts, the roof will also fall… that's why we don’t use this room, I have two rooms that are not being used for my children’s bedrooms. Rather than being at risk, it's better to sleep in the living room.
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Sutanto’s house is about 150 meters from the construction of a tunnel. That’s slightly longer than a soccer field. The tunnel is a part of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail project, a landmark project for China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The project aims to connect two of the region’s population centers, Jakarta and Bandung, through high-speed rail.
The housing complex where Sutanto lives is just west of Bandung. The tunnel construction impacts him and more than 100 other families who live in this complex.
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The construction process uses blasting techniques so that it has an impact on the damage to their residential houses.
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Residents have tried several times to voice their concerns to officials with the Indonesia-China High-Speed Rail Project, known by their Indonesian acronym KCIC, a consortium formed by Indonesian and Chinese state-owned enterprises. But the residents say the KCIC has not followed up. The consortium also did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.
[...]Sutanto and his neighbors wonder how much longer their homes can withstand the constant drilling.
[The transcript is available at The Inside Story-Belt & Road and Beyond TRANSCRIPT]