NUSANTARA, Indonesia — Deep in the forest of Borneo, Indonesia is building a futuristic new capital billed as renewable, high‑tech and greener than its sprawling predecessor. Jakarta — the world’s largest city, plagued by pollution, overcrowding and severe land subsidence — prompted the 2019 decision to create Nusantara from scratch.
Construction began in 2022 on a site about two hours’ drive from Balikpapan. The government’s core district is nearly finished: white office buildings with hanging plants, a bank shaped like a spaceship and a 250‑foot metal Garuda sculpture with a 500‑foot wingspan looming over a presidential palace. But the broader project — budgeted at more than $30 billion — has encountered criticism and delays. Logistics, financing and the 2024 presidential election slowed progress, and some local critics warn of environmental harm and negative impacts on Indigenous communities.
Today the metro area counts around 150,000 people, mostly construction workers and residents of nearby villages; the new core hosts roughly 10,000 people, including about 1,000 civil servants. Nusantara was a signature project of former President Joko Widodo. Since Prabowo Subianto became president in October 2024, some have questioned whether the project retains full political momentum. State funding for the project was halved for 2026 compared with 2025. Prabowo visited Nusantara in January 2025, more than a year after taking office.
A presidential regulation last year renamed Nusantara Indonesia’s “political capital” by 2028, rather than the earlier designation of “national capital,” a change that confused lawmakers and analysts and raised concerns it might signal de‑emphasis. Basuki Hadimuljono, head of the Nusantara Capital City Authority, dismissed talk of abandonment: “Don’t worry. It will be continued.” He says legislative and judicial buildings will be completed next year and that the president plans to move there in 2028. Authorities plan to relocate 4,100 more civil servants this year. Still, plans to house 1.2 million residents by 2029 — and as many as 191 million projected in wider scenarios by 2045 — appear unrealistic given missing essentials: schools, housing for married civil servants, malls and entertainment.
International coverage has warned Nusantara could become a “ghost city,” but officials insist development will continue. For now, ordinary life and complex tradeoffs persist around the construction zone.
Environmental groups say the project has already caused mangrove loss around Balikpapan Bay. WALHI East Kalimantan’s executive director Fathur Roziqin Fen warns of “silent victims” — mangrove ecosystems and species such as the proboscis monkey and the endangered owa Kalimantan primate. “It’s hard to believe the dream that the construction will be a smart city, forest city and green city,” he says. “It’s hard to believe that the future of [Nusantara] will be inclusive.”
A newly built dam and water treatment plant supply most of Nusantara with filtered drinking water — a rarity in many parts of Indonesia. But that infrastructure sits on the edge of Sepaku Lama village, home to Indigenous Balik people who have lived on this land for generations. A concrete flood‑control wall along the Sepaku River cut villagers off from bathing and laundry in the river; while the city provides free water, households must pay to have pipes installed. Many still rely on rainwater or purchase delivered tanks.
Syamsiah, 51, and her husband Pandi, 53, farm cassava, bananas, beans and other crops on land their family has tended for generations. Their village cemetery holds their parents and grandparents. A sacred river rock, Batu Badok, now lies inside the water treatment compound and is cut off from the community. City officials have told villagers their land will eventually be bought for the expanding capital, but Pandi says he does not want to sell. “Maybe the government can compensate me for the plants or even the house. But my memories, my history, can the government replace that?” he asks. “They already have a capital city. Why build a new one? Why don’t they just leave us here peacefully?”
Officials argue moving the capital will ease Jakarta’s strain: Jakarta’s metropolitan area hosts more than 40 million people and faces severe environmental and infrastructural pressures. Nusantara is planned to cover nearly 1,000 square miles — about three times the size of New York City — though authorities project it will house only about 2 million people by 2045. As construction expands, surrounding villages, including Sepaku Lama, may be absorbed into the new city.
For now Nusantara is a mix of completed government structures, active construction zones and nearby villages grappling with rapid change. The project remains an enormous promise — a planned green, smart political center — and an enormous question: whether it can meet its technical, financial and social goals without leaving behind people and ecosystems in its path.