The Japanese company Nippon Sharyo has been awarded a 13 billion yen contract to build 96 metro cars for the Jakarta Mass Rapid Transit system.

The new six-car train sets will operate on the north-south Line — Indonesia’s first metro line.

Nippon Sharyo, which has its headquarters in Nagoya, said this is the first time in two decades that new Japanese rolling stock has been built for Indonesia’s rail network.

The vehicles will be built to the Standard Urban Railway System for Asia — a system developed by Japanese rail companies based on tested technology to aid the export of Japanese rail technology to Asian countries. Officials in Jakarta already plan to extend the 15.7km line further north and build a new east-west line.