Indonesia has put on the backburner President Joko Widodo's ambitious $33-billion project to relocate the capital city to the island of Borneo as it grapples to rein in the coronavirus pandemic, the planning minister said.
Indonesia's parliament on November 18 passed a law approving the relocation of its capital from slowly sinking Jakarta to a site 2,000km away on jungle-clad Borneo island that will be named “Nusantara”.
The House of Representatives vote provides the legal framework for the move, which was first tipped by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in April 2019, citing rising sea levels and severe congestion on densely populated Java island.
Home to more than 30 million people in its greater metro area, Jakarta has long been plagued by serious infrastructure problems and flooding exacerbated by climate change, with experts predicting up to a third of the city could be underwater by 2050.
The new capital will cover about 56,180ha in East Kalimantan province on the Indonesian part of Borneo, which the country shares with Malaysia and Brunei.
In all, 256,142ha have been set aside for the project, with the additional land intended for potential future expansion.
Early plans for the new capital depict a utopian design aimed at creating an environmentally friendly “smart” city, but few details have been confirmed.
Environmentalist critics of the capital’s move have warned it could damage ecosystems in the region, where mining and palm oil plantations already threaten rainforests that are home to Borneo’s endangered species.
The new city will be governed by a body dubbed the State Capital Authority, with leadership appointed to five-year terms directly by the president, according to Tuesday’s legislation.
Budget details have not yet been revealed in a presidential decree, though previous reports have pegged the project’s costs at $33 billion.
