Jakarta. To President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, the saying “the more, the merrier” applies to the new capital megaproject as he hopes the Nusantara Airport, alongside other facilities, can bring huge crowds of people into the quiet city.

Indonesia is moving its capital from the busy Jakarta to a city in the rainforests of East Kalimantan. Jokowi plans on spending his remaining days as the president at Nusantara although the ex Jakarta governor would still be making trips around the Indonesian archipelago. 

On his second day working from the new capital, Jokowi inaugurated the Swissotel Nusantara. This is a five-star hotel backed by the Nusantara Consortium that is led by Sugianto Kusuma -- the owner of the property giant Agung Sedayu Group. 

Speaking at the hotel’s launch on Friday, Jokowi revealed the government’s plans of wanting to attract the traffic into the city. 

“The government’s job is to boost the traffic at the Nusantara Airport. … If this airport can gain lots of traffic with many airlines landing and taking off there, that will make the new capital busier,” Jokowi said.

 Jokowi claimed that he had planned on having his plane land at the Nusantara airport when he first arrived in the city. “But it was not possible,” Jokowi said, while saying that the airport would still need to hold some landing and take-off trial tests.

Jokowi had come to Nusantara by flying on the presidential plane to Balikpapan’s Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Sepinggan airport on Thursday morning. Jokowi then headed to Nusantara using the Air Force’s helicopter. The helicopter landed on the city’s helipad. The government aims to have the airport --which has done three-quarters of the construction work -- to finish by the end of this year.

The outgoing president is also banking on a tollway project that connects the recently inaugurated Balang Island bridge with Nusantara to breathe some life into the new capital. 

“This tollway will connect [the East Kalimantan city of] Balikpapan to the Pulau Balang bridge, while also linking the bridge and Nusantara. The tollway project will finish by mid-2025. This is set to bring even more traffic,” Jokowi said.

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