Indonesia to shift capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan

August 26, 2019 August 26, 2019

The nation of Indonesia has decided to shift its capital territory from Jakarta to a new site located in East Kalimantan province.

Indonesia is one of the world’s most populous countries and while home to several islands, its capital is located at Jakarta.
Over, half of the country?s nearly 270 million people live on Java which is the most densely populated area of the nation. The city of Jakarta is also located on the island of Java.
Jakarta is an Asian megacity with a population of over 10 million people. 20 million more people live in the Greater Jakarta metropolitan area.
Jakarta is highly prone to natural disasters like earthquakes & flooding and is under threat of rapidly sinking due to an uncontrolled extraction of groundwater.
Furthermore, the streets in Jakarta are highly congested and the Congestion costs over USD 6.5 billion a year.

The new site of the capital which has not been named as of yet is located in the most sparsely populated East Kalimantan province on the Borneo island.
The Borneo island is known for its rainforests and orangutans.
The capital was formalized after an in-depth study carried out over three years which resulted in the choice of the new location on the eastern side of Borneo island.
The new city is expected to have a relatively complete infrastructure as it is near the cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda.

While the Mineral-rich province of East Kalimantan was at one time, completely covered by tropical rainforests, illegal logging over the decades has removed much of the rainforests from the territory.?
The current population of the province is only 3.5 million people.
East Kalimantan is host to the Kutai National Park which is a refuge of the orangutans and other primates and mammals.