the contract signing. 2018 January The Jakarta Post referred to the project as "stagnant" and Maritime Affairs Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan announced that a review would be conducted to consider whether a high-speed rail system really was needed between Jakarta and Bandung because "the cities are only 140 kilometers apart." March It was reported that government agencies (the National Land Agency and the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry) suspected that there had been maladministration in the acquisition of over 1,800 plots of land for the project. As a result, approval of permits for the use of land for the project had been delayed. April State-owned enterprises minister Rini Soemarno, on a visit to Beijing, said that project construction would start in the coming month, May, and that she hoped that perhaps construction could start even sooner. She also said that she hoped land acquisition could be completed by the end of May. July Three lawsuits received legal approval from the courts to proceed with claims seeking compensation for their properties affected by the project. Meanwhile, the developer of the project PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China said that the progress of the project would not be affected by the lawsuits. The main financier of the project, China Development Bank, had disbursed $170 million in May and was due to disburse another $1.1 bn before the end of July. 2019 March The boring machine arrived and was assembled. Drilling started under the Jakarta-Cikampek Toll Road between KM 3+600 - KM5+800. Progress Reached 13% May The Walini tunnel become the first breakthrough tunnel in the high speed rail projects. Celebrated by many group of minister including a Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Rini Soemarno and the West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil. According to Rini Soemarno, progress reached 17.5% but estimated to be 59% in late 2019, and land acquisition was almost 100%. Ridwan Kamil hoped to commence the high speed rail operation in 2021. September The construction progress reached 32.8% and land acquisition progress reached 99.0%. October Construction progress 38.2%. 2020 In mid-February 2020, construction progress reached 44 percent and land acquisitions reach 99.96 percent. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, work of the project has been halted temporarily, resulting in the delay of the targeted finish of construction and start of the operation. Three months later, construction progress reached 48.3 percent and the construction works resumed, which follow government's health and safety measures, such