Leaving Jakarta: Indonesia accelerates plans for 'green, smart' capital in the middle of Borneo wilderness

The legacies of both former leaders hang over critical choices being made now about Indonesia’s future.The people of Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan believe there is a destiny in their city becoming capital. From its inception, it was modelled on Washington DC with a large traffic circle, mall and wide avenues, engineered by Russians.

An area north of the city has been proposed that straddles three local regencies, dubbed the “Palangkaraya Triangle”. There is ample room for the construction of a large city, which would be flanked by two major rivers. It is an area being properly examined by the planning ministry. “We are trying to utilise economies of scale by locating the new capital not too far from functional cities, functional areas and of course the availability of infrastructure,” Bambang said.

Still, it is not these types of infrastructure that have environmentalists worried, rather the need to build an entire city from scratch over thousands of hectares. Orangutans live in a pristine wildlife sanctuary just a few kilometres from the proposed site of the new capital in Bukit Soeharto.

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