Indonesia’s capital of the future faces doubts in the present

NUSANTARA, Indonesia — Deep in the forest of Indonesia’s Borneo island, construction is underway for a new futuristic capital, powered by renewable energy and run by advanced technology.

Indonesia’s current capital, Jakarta — now the world’s largest city — is polluted and overcrowded, and it’s sinking. So in 2019, Indonesia’s government announced a bold plan: to build Nusantara, a new capital, from scratch.

The site is located about a two-hour drive away from the neighboring city of Balikpapan. Construction of Nusantara began in 2022, and the city’s core government district is nearly complete. The area features a sprawling green park surrounded by white office buildings with plants draping over their balconies, a bank that looks like a spaceship and the city’s centerpiece — a 250-foot-tall metal structure shaped like Garuda, an eagle-like mythical bird that is the country’s national emblem. Its 500-foot wingspan towers over the presidential palace.

But there are concerns that progress on this more than $30 billion project has been slow. Logistics, funding challenges and a presidential election have delayed the timeline. And local critics worry that construction could harm the environment and nearby Indigenous populations.

Today, the broader metro area includes around 150,000 people — a mix of construction workers and long‑established villages. But the new city’s core is home to only about 10,000 residents, including roughly a thousand civil servants.

Nusantara was a signature project of former President Joko Widodo. Since the current leader, Prabowo Subianto, assumed office in October 2024, some critics of the projects have questioned whether he shares the same enthusiasm. State funding for the project was cut in half for 2026 compared with the previous year. Prabowo made his first visit to the site this January, more than a year after taking office.

The “political capital” by 2028

The uncertainty has fueled concerns, especially in the international press, that Nusantara could become a “ghost city.”

But Basuki Hadimuljono, the head of the Nusantara Capital City Authority, dismisses such concerns, saying, “ Don’t worry. It will be continued.”

Last year, Prabowo signed a presidential regulation that Nusantara will be designated Indonesia’s “political capital” by 2028 — different from previous language calling it the “national capital.” The shift confused other lawmakers and policy experts worried about a de-emphasis on the project.

For Basuki, the regulation was a symbol of support from the president. Once the legislative and judicial buildings are completed next year, he says, the president plans to finally move to Nusantara in 2028. Meanwhile, there are plans to move 4,100 more civil servants to the city this year.

Still, this goal is far from moving some 1.2 million residents here by 2029. Essential infrastructure such as schools, housing for married civil servants, malls and other places for entertainment are still missing.

“Silent victims”

And not everyone is happy with the development.

Local environmental groups like WALHI say that construction has already caused mangrove deforestation around the Balikpapan Bay.

“The most impacted will be what we call silent victims — mangrove ecosystem and then proboscis monkey and owa Kalimantan,” says Fathur Roziqin Fen, executive director of WALHI East Kalimantan. The owa Kalimantan is an endangered primate living in the forest in East Kalimantan province.

“It’s hard to believe the dream that the construction will be a smart city, forest city and green city,” Fathur says. “It’s hard to believe that the future of [Nusantara] will be inclusive.”

Outside the city, the newly built dam and water treatment plant provide most of the city with filtered drinking water — a luxury not found in other parts of Indonesia.

But the plant was built on the edge of the Sepaku Lama village, where many Indigenous people from the Balik tribe have lived for generations.

Part of the dam and flood mitigation, a concrete wall built along the Sepaku River cuts off the village from using the water to bathe with and wash clothes as they used to. Alfian Brahmana Putra, the pump operator for the treatment plant, says the city provides free water for the village, but residents are responsible for having water pipes installed in their homes. Many families opt to use rainwater or buy tanks of water that are delivered to their houses.

Fifty-one-year-old Syamsiah and her husband, Pandi, who are both Balik and like many Indonesians have just one name, live in a concrete-block house on their farm in Sepaku Lama village. Here, they’ve planted cassavas, bananas, green beans, fruit trees and many more crops. For them, this land is more than a livelihood — it’s their family history.

Both Syamsiah’s parents and grandparents are buried in the village’s graveyard.

Nearby, a rhino-shaped rock in the river — a sacred site for Balik people called Batu Badok — now sits inside the water treatment compound, cut off from the community.

An enormous promise and an enormous question

Nusantara is planned to span nearly 1,000 square miles, an area about three times the size of New York City. As the construction expands, the surrounding villages, including Syamsiah and Pandi’s, will eventually be absorbed. City officials have already told them that they will eventually have to sell their land to the project.

But Pandi, Syamsiah’s 53-year-old husband, says he’s not interested in selling. “Maybe the government can compensate me for the plants or even the house. But my memories, my history, can the government replace that?” he says. He and his wife also say they don’t have anywhere else to go if they have to move.

“They already have a capital city. Why build a new one? Why don’t they just leave us here peacefully?” Pandi adds.

Officials hope moving the capital will relieve some of the growing pains of Jakarta, which is now the most populous city in the world, with more than 40 million people. But even as Indonesia grapples with the challenges of Jakarta, Nusantara is expected to be home to only 2 million people by 2045.

For now, Nusantara remains both an enormous promise — and an enormous question.