Japanese firms to vie for Indonesian railway project

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Three Japanese consortia have qualified to bid for a railway project in Indonesia expected to cost about 660 million dollars, an official said Thursday.

The Indonesian government has cleared the three groups to tender for the six-trillion-rupiah project to build a 35-kilometer, double-track railway line in West Java, railway spokesman Suprapto told AFP.

The consortia are Marubeni-Tokyu, Itochu-Taise and Mitsubishi-Sumitomo, he said.

The project is partly financed by a 41-billion-yen (343-million-dollar) loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

Consortia Tekken-Kajima and Takenaka-Mitsui failed to qualify, Suprapto said, adding the project would go out to tender in May with construction starting before the end of the year.

The railway line will link Manggarai in the south of the capital, Jakarta, to Cikarang in West Java.

The loan is repayable over 40 years, with a 10-year grace period, at an 0.95 percent annual interest rate.