JAKARTA -- A string of accidents is threatening to undermine Indonesian President Joko Widodo's signature infrastructure development drive. Though the causes remain unclear, the president's political rivals have seized on the problems ahead of local and presidential elections, blasting the administration for pushing projects too hastily.

Just a month after Widodo opened a railway connection to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, heavy rain triggered a landslide at a rail underpass near the airport on Feb. 5. Tumbling concrete and soil crushed a passing Honda Brio, killing the female driver and injuring the other passenger. Railway operations were suspended for three days.

The landslide occurred a day after a deadly accident at a construction site for a commuter rail line in Central Jakarta. A heavy crane fell over, killing four workers and injuring at least one other. 

These are the latest in a series of at least 14 accidents involving infrastructure projects over the past several months -- 10 in Jakarta and its suburbs. The total death toll stands at nine.

The troubles have coincided with a pickup in construction, after sluggish funding and progress in the first half of Widodo's presidency. Most of the cases are still under investigation, but skepticism is building over the quality of the infrastructure and the government's ability to fulfill its ambitions. 

Some observers see a combination of factors at play: the unprecedented scale and variety of the projects, coupled with pressure on builders to complete them quickly -- in many cases by 2019, when Widodo is expected to seek re-election.

Consider the Jakarta LRT, the capital's first light rail transit network. The project should have been launched in 2015, but due to funding and other kinks, construction did not begin until January 2017. Despite the long delay, the target for completion was left unchanged -- before the Asian Games in August. The government wants athletes to be able to use the LRT to avoid the city's notorious traffic jams.

The train carriages will arrive in April," Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan told reporters in December. "God willing, [the line] will be able to start operations in July at the latest."

On Jan. 22, however, workers were installing a box girder for elevated tracks near a velodrome in East Jakarta when the girder collapsed, injuring five of them.

Franky Rivan, an analyst at Mirae Asset Sekuritas Indonesia, is among those who believe rushed work is to blame.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Economy/Accidents-mar-Indonesia-s-fast-and-furious-infrastructure-program?

Fast and furious