Jakarta (Greeners) – As Central Kalimantan province is getting strong to be Indonesia’s new capital city, regional administration ensures that infrastructure and facilities will not be in peatland areas, said Fahrizal Fitri, regional secretary of the province in Jakarta on Wednesday (19/06/2019).
“We are recommending to the president that development on the northern part of Central Kalimantan will be 50-75 meters above sea level, meanwhile peats is one the southern part of Central Kalimantan so it’s safe and will not take peats, ” he said adding that Gunung Mas district as one of the candidates has been preparing the infrastructure and facilities.
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Furthermore, he said that compare to Jakarta, Kalimantan has relatively clean air, green plants and can provide 1,000 cubic per seconds of water supply from rivers in the province.
The width of the river is 300-450 meters with three to four meters deep, in average.
“So, that’s several of our advantages though we do have limited infrastructure development and needs lots of investment. However, with our advantages of having 300,000 hectares of land, that is sufficient to be Indonesia’s new capital city,” he said.
He added that lakes, ecosystem and Sebangau National Park will be preserved and protected.
“Capital city development will have green and smart city concept by focusing on government city theme and not industrial city, though it is likely that small industries will grow but with Jakarta’s experience, it is our foundation to manage the city better, especially from the perspective of environment,” he said.
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He said that Gunung Mas district’s preparation to become new capital city has reached 80 percent as they gave planned to build new airport on the-5,000-hectares of land, which will not be in peatlands.
“It is possible for Tjilik Riwut airport will change into military airport or to become supporting airport. The bottom line is we’re preparing for the capital city development,” he said.
Reports by Dewi Purningsih
21 Apr 2024 
