As pollution reaches extremely severe levels in the national capital, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday asked: “Is Delhi still worthy of becoming the national capital of India?” This X post by Thiruvananthapuram MP sparked a debate on social media. Many users suggested moving the country’s capital from Delhi to a city like Chennai or Hyderabad, where the air is much cleaner.
It’s not that no country has changed its capital before. Indonesia passed legislation to move its capital from Jakarta to Nusantara in 2022, due to environmental challenges and climate concerns. Let us tell you that Indonesia is also known for its poor air quality. Indonesia’s new capital, located about 1,000 kilometers from Jakarta, is still under construction and is expected to completely move from Jakarta to Nusantara in 2045.
President Joko Widodo’s government has estimated that the construction of the new capital will cost $35 billion, or Rs 2.905 lakh crore. 1.9 million people are also expected to move from Jakarta to Nusantara by 2045.
Why is Indonesia moving its capital from Jakarta?
Like Delhi, Jakarta also suffers from worsening air quality year after year. This city is home to approximately 10 million (1 crore) people. From May to August the air quality remains in the “very poor” category. During this time, Jakarta hospitals are full of patients suffering from respiratory diseases. In 2023, more than one lakh such cases were reported every month. A Jakarta Post report also linked dangerous levels of pollution to the deaths of stunted babies and newborns.
In fact, in 2023, Jakarta has consistently been among the top 10 most polluted cities in the world since May. For several weeks now, scenes of the president coughing at public events have also attracted attention. However, the biggest argument behind the decision to move the capital to Nusantara is that Jakarta is rapidly sinking. Indonesian cities face the threat of rising sea levels and land subsidence due to climate change.
Experts say that if sea levels continue to rise at this rapid rate and land subsidence continues, a third of Jakarta could be submerged by 2050. Many commercial and residential areas in North Jakarta have already been submerged.
What will the new capital of Indonesia be like?
However, building a new capital from scratch is a very difficult task, involving the construction of government and residential buildings. For this major project, the Indonesian government initially decided to transfer more than 1.5 million civil servants from Jakarta to Nusantara. AP quoted Bambang Susantono, head of the Nusantara National Capital Authority, as saying: “To avoid facing a situation like Jakarta in the future, the new capital is being set up in the ‘Forest City’ concept, 65 % of which will be green area”. .That means you will be surrounded by trees, plants and vegetation.
Additionally, Nusantara will adopt 100% renewable energy. The government has emphasized that it will be easy to make the new city completely based on green energy. All construction is expected to be completed in 2045, on the occasion of the country’s centenary. However, the government faces harsh criticism from climate activists. He says making Nusantara the new capital will affect the ecology of the nearby island of Borneo. This island is known for its beaches and rainforests. Wildlife lives here on a large scale. Experts have also said that those who live in rural areas of Jakarta and do not have the resources to move to the new capital will suffer the consequences.
What did Shashi Tharoor say about pollution in Delhi?
Shashi Tharoor said in a scathing post on Tuesday when the AQI in Delhi crossed 490 points: ‘Delhi is the most polluted city in the world. The level of air pollution is 4 times higher than normal. The air here is almost five times worse than that of the world’s second most polluted city, Dhaka. It is not habitable from November to January. Pollution levels are increasing due to vehicular smoke and burning of crop residues in neighboring states. It is not habitable even in the rest of the months of the year. Should it remain the capital of the country? Let us tell you that this post by Shashi Tharoor comes a few days before the start of the winter session of Parliament, when MPs from across the country will gather in Delhi.
