![]() NIS company head office in Semarang, Dutch East Indies, now known as Lawang Sewu. | |
Overview | |
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Headquarters | The Hague, Netherlands Registered office Administration Office of the NIS, Semarang, Dutch East Indies Corporate headquarters |
Locale | Batavia, Buitenzorg, Central Java, East Java, and Vorstenlanden, Dutch East Indies |
Dates of operation | August 27, 1863–1942 |
Successor | Kereta Api Indonesia |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) |
N.V. Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij (lit. 'Dutch East Indies Railway Company plc'), abbreviated to NIS, NISM or N.V. NISM was a private-owned railways company in charge of rail transport in Java, Dutch East Indies. The company's headquarters were in Semarang, Central Java. The company started its maiden route from Semarang (at Kemidjen village) to the Vorstenlanden (Yogyakarta and Surakarta) and in 1873 they also built their line to the Willem I Railway Station of Ambarawa–Kedungjati and Batavia–Buitenzorg lines. Later the network expanded to Bandung and Surabaya. It was absorbed into the present Kereta Api Indonesia after Indonesian independence in 1949. It was the main competitor to Staatsspoorwegen as state-owned railway company and established on April 6, 1875.
The company's registered office is in The Hague (in the building now used by the South African embassy in the Netherlands), but it mainly operates from an administrative headquarters building in Semarang (now become Lawang Sewu in Javanese or The Thousand Doors) which was designed by Cosman Citroen and was renovated in 2009.