During a visit to Kalimantan, President Joko Widodo has said that Gunung Mas in Kalimantan currently tops the list of options for Indonesia’s new capital city that is going to replace Jakarta.
“The area is vast, the location is the most prepared to provide 300 hectares of land, with possible expansion. So far, it has the most potential to be our capital city,” the President stated during a survey in the Gunung Mas Regency yesterday.
Gunung Mas is one of the obvious options, along with Palangka Raya and Katingan Regency. Jokowi also cited that Indonesia’s first President, Soekarno who once envisioned Palangka Raya as Indonesia’s capital city, must have had very strong reasons for doing so.
“Our first president, Soekarno, must have considered Palangka Raya for specific reasons, namely data-based arguments supported by facts about Palangka Raya’s nature,” Jokowi mused. He further elaborated that Palangka Raya has minimum risk of being struck by natural disasters, and that its infrastructure will have to be built from scratch. The president also assured that a designated team will continue to conduct a thorough analysis of the three regions being considered as candidates for the new capital city, before announcing the final decision.
Jokowi, who was accompanied by some state ministers, decided to visit and survey prospective areas in Kalimantan to get a ‘real feel’ of the cities.
Source: Tempo
Image: INews