Jakarta's Ground Problem Is Driving a Historic Relocation
Indonesia is doing something few countries have attempted: abandoning a megacity as its seat of government and building an entirely new capital from scratch. The destination is a stretch of East Kalimantan rainforest on the island of Borneo, roughly a thousand kilometres from Jakarta. The city under construction is called Nusantara, and the reason for the move is literally underfoot in the current capital.
Jakarta, home to more than forty million people across its wider metropolitan area, has spent decades sinking. Residents and businesses have long drilled private wells to access groundwater, steadily draining the aquifers beneath the city and causing the land above them to subside. Chronic flooding, severe traffic congestion, and worsening air quality compound the problem. Rather than continuing to invest in defending Jakarta against these compounding pressures, the Indonesian government decided to start over.
What Has Actually Been Built in Nusantara
Construction began in 2022, following years of proposals that stretch back to the Suharto era in the 1990s. According to reporting by NPR from the site, the core government district is now nearly complete. The area features a large green park surrounded by white office buildings, plants cascading from balconies, and a distinctively shaped bank building alongside the main government structures. The Nusantara Capital City Authority has confirmed that construction of the legislative and judicial buildings is expected to finish within the coming year.
President Prabowo Subianto, who took office in October 2024, has signed a presidential regulation designating Nusantara as Indonesia's political capital by 2028, with plans for the president himself to relocate once those remaining buildings are complete.
The Forest City Design and Why Borneo Was Chosen
The site selection was deliberate. East Kalimantan sits away from the volcanic and seismic instability that runs through Java, offering more stable ground for long-term construction. The Nusantara Capital City Authority has also framed the relocation as a step toward reducing the deep developmental imbalance between Java, where population and economic activity have long concentrated, and the rest of Indonesia's archipelago of more than seventeen thousand islands.
The design philosophy is equally intentional. Official plans require at least 65 percent forest cover across the capital, achieved partly by rehabilitating degraded land including former mining sites rather than clearing intact rainforest. The government zone targets more than 75 percent green open space, with a stated goal of placing recreational green areas within a ten-minute walk of every resident.
Serious Challenges Remain
The project has not been without turbulence. State funding for Nusantara was cut in half for 2026 compared with the prior year, according to NPR, and questions have circulated about whether the current administration is as committed to the project as its predecessor. The head of the Nusantara Capital City Authority, Basuki Hadimuljono, has publicly pushed back against suggestions the city could become a ghost town, telling NPR that the project will continue.
Even so, the gap between ambition and reality is wide. Plans call for moving several thousand civil servants to Nusantara this year, a modest figure against the roughly 1.2 million residents the government ultimately envisions. Schools, permanent housing for families, shopping centres, and other everyday infrastructure remain largely unfinished.
Why It Matters for Hosts
For independent accommodation and hospitality operators in East Kalimantan, the gradual influx of civil servants, construction workers, government visitors, and eventually journalists and officials represents a sustained demand signal that is unlikely to disappear even if the timeline slips. Operators who begin building relationships with corporate and government travel segments now, and who can offer reliable, well-documented properties to institutional bookers, are better positioned than those waiting for the city to feel fully established before investing in their own capacity.
The details in this post were first reported by NPR and subsequently covered by the Times of India.
First reported by Jakarta Travel.