REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BEIJING -- The government of Indonesia has offered construction of railway line in Bali to a number of Chinese investors.
"There are a number of project we have offered such as a railway line in Bali," Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan told Antara in Beijing on Thursday.
Luhut said the rail track is to connect a number of regencies in the world's famous tourist resort island.
In the first phase, construction will start from the provincial city of Denpasar to Ubud in the regency of Gianyar and Singaraja in the regency of Buleleng.
The rail track would facilitate transport of tourists to various tourist destinations in the island, Luhut said.
"So far tourists both foreign and domestic tourists have been concentrated in Nusa Dua in the regency of Badung or around Denpasar. With the railways, the spread would be wider to northern part of the island," he said.
Luhut said he could not yet say when the construction of Bali's first railway would start.
"Hopefully , work would start next year as the feasibility study has been carried out by the World Bank and Bali's Udayana University," he said.
Luhut is there for a three day working visit starting Thursday to follow up bilateral talks between President Joko Widodo and Chinese President Xi Jinping here last May.
Luhut is accompanies by Minister for National Development Planning and head of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) Bambang Brodjonegoro and chief of the Capital Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Thomas Lembong and a number of leaders of state owned companies.
The three members of the cabinet are to meet Chinese officials and business leaders during their stay in China.
The government already awarded to China construction of Indonesia's first high speed railway project to link Jakarta and Bandung in West Java to cost around US$5.2 billion.
China Development Bank is to provide 75 percent of the cost to build the project with ground breaking taking place in January, 2016.
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