Palangka Raya Prepares Land as Govt Plans to Move Capital City

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Central Kalimantan Governor Sugianto Sabran said that the region has 300,000 hectares of land in Palangka Raya that can be used to materialize the plan to move the capital city. He will allow the government to turn the forest area into a new capital city. “I only do what President Joko Widodo had asked me to do: to find a plot of land,” Sugianto stated in an official statement made last week.

The PDIP politician said that local government needs to ensure that the land is available for the central government to prevent land speculation in the future. According to him, other provinces might have also been asked to do so. After all, he said, the study on the plan to move the capital city is still ongoing.

Read: Palangkaraya Not Ready Yet to Become Capital: Spokesman

The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) is the one who will decide on the location, according to Sugianto. He said that his administration will make further preparations should the central government instructs him to do so in the near future. “I only do what I’ve been told by the central government. I call on people who own properties not to immediately sell their land,” he said.

Bappenas head Bambang Brodjonegoro said that the government will not yet discuss the future location before the study is concluded by the end of this year. He said that the government will be focusing on a possible move that is also cost-effective. Land availability and involvement of private firms are among the main topics of the study.

Concerns over land speculation continue to grow, however. Sumarno, a Palangka Raya resident, could not resist the offer to sell his land. “I bought the land at only Rp100 million, it has now been bought by a Jakartan at Rp400 million,” he said.

Read: Bappenas: Jokowi Plans to Move State Capital to Palangkaraya

Arifin Rudiyanto, Bappenas Deputy for Regional Development Division, said that the government will need a vast land to accommodate the relocation of all state institutions. Aside from the executive branch, the legislative branch and the judiciary, at the minimum, will also be included in the plan to move the capital city. “Jakarta will still serve as the center of the national economy and trade,” Rudiyanto said.

Central Kalimantan Indigenous Dayak Council chief Agustiar Sabran is hopeful that the government would take into account the key aspects of human society in the capital city relocation plan, in addition to the infrastructure. He said that diminishing Betawi tradition in Jakarta should serve as a lesson learned with regard to the plan. “Dayak Culture must remain master [of the region],” he said.

Destrianita | Karana W. (Palangka Raya)| Andi Ibnu