INKA Vying to Supply Train Cars to Bangladesh and Iran

State-owned train manufacturer PT INKA hopes to win tenders worth Rp2 trillion (US$175.5 million) in this year’s contracts to supply electric railway cars to Bangladesh and Iran.

“We will bid in international markets as much as we can,” INKA president director Agus Purnomo told reporters on Tuesday on the sidelines of a discussion at the Tanjung Priok Railway Station in North Jakarta with representatives of the Transportation Ministry, state-owned train operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) and state-owned electronic components maker PT LEN Industri.

Agus said INKA aimed to supply 50 train cars worth $90 million to Bangladesh and 100 train cars worth $96.9 million to Iran this year.

The company has supplied train cars to several other countries, including Malaysia and Thailand,
as well as train components to Australia.

However, Agus said the firm only exported a quarter of its total production, while the remainder of its production was sold to KAI.

In relation to the company’s business in the domestic market, Agus said the company had signed a multi-year train procurement project worth Rp400 billion with KAI.

He added that 60 percent of the procurement was for freight trains.

The procurement started in 2013, he said.

Along with Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier, INKA is bidding to supply cars for KAI’s commuter line project connecting Manggarai in South Jakarta to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to the west of Jakarta.

Agus said the company’s biggest competitors were Chinese train producers.

“We have to win the tender,” he said.

“We produce the same level of quality. We are only competing in price,” he added.

The commuter line to the airport will be served by a minimum of 10 trains, with each train consisting of six cars with a capacity of 250 passengers.

Meanwhile, Transportation Minister EE Mangindaan said that KAI and the Banten administration had cooperated in accelerating land acquisition to expedite the commuter line project to Soekarno-Hatta airport.

“We target to complete the railway line this year as the project is in line with renovation work at the airport’s terminals one and two,” he said.

“We hope that these projects will be completed by 2015,” he added.

The commuter railway project has taken longer than previously projected pending approval by the Banten administration in regard to land acquisition for the construction of a railway track from Batu Ceper in Tangerang, Banten, to Soekarno-Hatta.

KAI previously said the company had not acquired areas along 100 meters of the planned railway track as it was still negotiating with local residents.

Using the commuter line, it would take 45 minutes to get to the airport from Manggarai, while the express train was estimated to take 30 minutes from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta to Soekarno-Hatta.

The airport commuter line will pass through Manggarai-Sudirman (Central Jakarta)-Tanah Abang (Central Jakarta)-Duri (West Jakarta)-Grogol (West Jakarta)-Bojong Indah (West Jakarta)-Kalideres (West Jakarta)-Tanah Tinggi (Tangerang)-Soekarno-Hatta.

The commuter line is aimed at not only reducing congestion on the toll roads to Soekarno-Hatta, but also to support the Transportation Ministry’s express train connecting Halim and Soekarno-Hatta. (Nadya Natahadibrata, The Jakarta Post,)