November 14, 2025
JAKARTA – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is now looking into potential corruption in the land acquisition for the Whoosh Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway (HSR), after investigators raised suspicions of embezzlement in the alleged inflated land procurement.
The agency disclosed last month that it began a preliminary investigation into alleged corruption in the Whoosh construction project earlier this year, without detailing the case.
On Monday, KPK acting deputy for enforcement Asep Guntur Rahayu said investigators found indications that a number of unnamed individuals might have resold parcels of state-owned land to the state as part of land acquisition for the railway project.
“Since this is supposed to be a government project, the state should not have to pay for state-owned land,” Asep told reporters at the KPK headquarters in Jakarta, as quoted from Antara.
He said investigators believed that these individuals embezzled the Whoosh’s development costs by inflating the land prices they resold along the 142-kilometer rail corridor connecting Jakarta and Bandung. “This surely has caused state losses,” Asep added.
While Asep did not specify which patches of land are under the KPK’s scrutiny, he said the alleged markup could have occurred anywhere along the Whoosh route from Halim in East Jakarta to Padalarang and Tegalluar in West Java.
He urged these individuals to return the money to the state, noting that the antigraft agency would not have opened its probe if they had sold the land at fair prices.
Read also: KPK pushes ahead with probe into Whoosh
Despite these indications, KPK spokesperson Budi Prasetyo said its investigation is still in the preliminary stage.
“The KPK is still focusing on examining potential criminal acts and whether there were state losses. We have not yet come to any conclusion,” Budi told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Asked whether the resale of state-owned land constitutes a misuse of state assets, Budi said the KPK is “still examining the case”.
Asep of the KPK assured, however, that Whoosh services would not be hindered by the ongoing investigation.
The investigation is the first corruption probe into the Whoosh since it began operations in 2023. Its construction kicked off in 2016 as a flagship initiative of former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
Built by Chinese Indonesian consortium KCIC, the project was marred by delays and cost overruns.
The mounting debt incurred during the Whoosh’s construction put the HSR back in the public spotlight last month, when former coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister Mahfud MD mentioned in a YouTube video that there are suspicions of cost markups in the project.
Mahfud pointed out that the project’s per-kilometer cost reached US$52 million, far higher than the $17 million estimated cost for a similar project in China. The total cost for the HSR was $7.2 billion.
Read also: Whoosh success about more than financial balance, says China
Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa last month ruled out using the state budget to cover the debt incurred from the Whoosh’s construction.
President Prabowo Subianto has since sought to calm public concern about the Whoosh’s financial troubles, stressing the HSR’s necessity as a “public service obligation” and pledging to take responsibility for Whoosh’s financial woes himself.