From city to jungle, indonesia grand Plan to move it's Capital

Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, has been described as an unlivable city, suffocating with traffic and smog. It has one of the world’s worst air pollution capitals and is sinking. By 2050, it is estimated that around a quarter of the city will be under water. In 2019, President Joko Widodo launched a radical plan to move the megacity. His chosen location is more than a thousand kilometres away, deep in the jungles of Borneo.

This week, on Foreign Correspondent Indonesia, Bill Birtles visits the site of the new capital in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. In the middle of the jungle, a new city is being built that promises to be clean, green and sustainable. But this utopian vision is costing a fortune – $US45 billion. Critics say the project is a waste of the country’s limited resources. Whether it gets off the ground now depends on the new president, who has said he supports the expensive move… for now.