KONTAN.CO.ID - JAKARTA, Sept 8 - Indonesia's finance minister said on Tuesday the country's sovereign wealth fund INA, or an agency under his ministry, would next week take control of the company that operates a $7.3 billion, China-funded high-speed railway.

Indonesia's first bullet train, covering 142 km (88 miles) between Jakarta and the city of Bandung, started operations in 2023, eight years after it was awarded to a joint venture of Indonesian and Chinese state companies.

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Commercially named "Whoosh", the Belt and Road Initiative project has been beset ⁠by problems, including ballooning ⁠costs. In 2025, Indonesia began discussions with China â??to restructure the project's debt.

Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa said last month an agency under the finance ministry would take over a 60% stake in the company operating the railway, with Chinese firms retaining 40%.

However, Purbaya said on Tuesday authorities were weighing whether to give the stake to the Indonesia Investment Authority (INA) or Sarana Multi Infrastructure (SMI), a development financing arm under his ministry.

"Maybe we use SMI and INA, or maybe either one of them," he told reporters.

The stake will be handed over on September 15, Purbaya said.

Purbaya did not say whether the current stakeholder, a consortium led by state railway firm Kereta Api Indonesia, would be compensated for the transfer. However, the minister said the new controlling stakeholder would be responsible for repaying the project's outstanding loan.

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Following restructuring talks, China agreed to extend the loan's tenure to 80 years, Purbaya said.

The original $4.5 billion loan from China Development Bank had a 40-year tenure with a 10-year grace period. Indonesia subsequently took on more loans to cover the project's cost overruns.

After the handover, the railway will be extended by some 700 km east to the country's second-biggest city of Surabaya, Purbaya said. He did not say how the extension would be funded.