REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - The double track of northern Java railway between Jakarta and Surabaya of East Java is expected to be operational early 2014. Operation of the new track will considerably reduce the burden of the highways linking the two largest cities in the country. 

"Early next year precisely in the first quarter of 2014, the track would be put into operation," Deputy Transport Minister Bambang Susantono said in a statement on Wednesday. 

Bambang said currently the entire work has been 97 percent completed in the project of around 1,000 kilometer track. The track between Jakarta and Pekalongan in Central Java had been ready for use, he said, adding it could be in service for Christmas and New Year transport. Final touches were needed only in some points including near Semarang and the line between Bojonegoro and Surabaya, he added. 

The burden of the Jakarta-Surabaya highways could be reduced by one million containers a year after the operation of the track, he said. He also said that construction of Trans Sumatra Railway linking the northern and southern tips of the countrys second most populated island was on going by phases. 

Earlier the government offered construction of the 1,750 kilometer rail track to Japanese contractors. 

"The construction service market has been saturated in Japan opening an opportunity to attract Japanese infrastructure contractors to the country," head of construction development division at the Ministry of Public Works, Hediyanto Husaini, said .

Railway development is among the priority projects of the government under its long term development plan including the Master Plan for Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI).

"So far Japan is more interested in building roads in Indonesia, but perhaps it is time for us to offer railway projects," he said.

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