The National Capital City Project (IKN) for June 2023 continues with various government infrastructure developments for various agencies.
Construction of 47 residential towers
Basuki Hadimuljono, Minister of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) said that the government is currently carrying out the initial stages of constructionin IKN. The government will soon build 47 apartment towers for official residences for the State Civil Apparatus (ASN), Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI), and Indonesian National Police (Polri).
“Earlier it was decided that 47 towers would be built soon,” said Hadimuljono.
This development with an apartment model is in line with the concept of a forest city and will cost up to IDR 9.4 trillion and construction will start in 2023. Later, ASN will be given the option of having a house or apartment according to a survey of IKN residential needs.
“In the schedule, if it is to be completed by 2024, then June-July [2023] must start the work,” he said.
He conveyed that the number of ASN, TNI and Polri who will move to IKN until 2024 has reached 16.9 thousand personnel.
A number of inportant infrastructure was built
Alimuddin, Deputy for Social, Culture and Community Empowerment of the IKN Authority, said that the construction process was still continuing with the construction of the presidential palace, the state secretariat, the vice-presidential palace, four coordinating ministry buildings, and the official residences of the ministers.
“The scope of work is in the form of an office building for the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy, infrastructure and regional planning,” said Suharso Monoarfa, Minister of National Development Planning (PPN).
Suharso said that progress of the presidential palace construction had reached around 28%, which was built by PT Wijaya Karya in November 2022 and is targeted for completion in October 2024.
Meanwhile, the first coordinating ministry office was built starting in December 2022 and is targeted to be completed in October 2024. This project is also being done by PT Wijaya Karya (WIKA).
The second coordinating ministry office has been constructed since January 2023 and is targeted for completion in October 2024. This project is being run by PT Ciriajasa Engineering Consultants.
Future development will include eight fields for the training center of the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) national team with an area of 20 to 30 hectares (ha).
In addition, there is also a flag ceremony field project which is planned to be used for the commemoration ceremony of RI’s 79th birthday (HUT) on August 17, 2024, at IKN.
Construction of the third coordinating ministry office area has started since December 2022 and is targeted to be completed in December 2024. This project is being carried out by PT Virama Karya.
All of these development projects are built within the Central Government Core Area (KIPP) covering an area of 6,671.55 ha.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Ridwan, Head of the Public Relations Bureau of the Indonesian National Civil Service Agency (BKN) said that a total of 180,000 Civil Servants (PNS) would be transferred to IKN, which would be carried out in stages to a number of ministries and institutions by 2024.
Geological institute response
The construction of the IKN drew criticism from geologists because they were not invited to inspect the land and its surroundings for mitigation.
“Not a single expert in geology, geotechnical, geophysical hydrogeology, environmental geology, subsurface geology, and disaster geology was invited,” said Andang Bachtiar, former chairman of the Association of Indonesian Geologists (IAGI).
Bachtiar assesses that there is still a lot of work in terms of science, and engineering that still needs to be completed in the early stages of this project. He considered it should not be too fast, and not yet right to be built at this time.
Meanwhile, Rita Susilawati, Head of the Center for Groundwater and Environmental Geology, the Geology Agency of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (ESDM) revealed that ESDM had conducted a series of studies on the location of the new capital city. But she gave a disclaimer that the Geological Institute did not participate in the selection of the IKN area, because according to her the IKN area was safe to be developed.
