But with Dr Yudhoyono due to step down on Oct 20, there were questions as to whether the plan would fade into obscurity.

Since its launch in May 2011, close to 400 projects worth 854 trillion rupiah (US$74.30 billion) have taken off and some of them are near completion, but many others have yet to get off the ground.

President-elect Joko Widodo and his advisers have put some of these doubts to rest in recent days.

They say they would continue with parts of the plan, officially called the Masterplan for Acceleration and Expansion of Economic Development, that are in line with the new government's vision.

These include a focus on the neglected maritime sector and seaports, public transport, and greater attention to underdeveloped provinces such as Papua.

Joko hopes to launch railway projects on the outer islands, and beef up public transport in major cities - goals which were also identified but less clearly fleshed out in the masterplan.

Senior officials and observers said the comments by the incoming administration suggested it would continue many of the outgoing government's long-term development programmes, albeit with some adjustments.

Chairul Tanjung, coordinating minister for the Economy, said continuity in long-term development is a prerequisite for Indonesia to become an advanced country.

After meeting him last Wednesday, Rini Soemarno, the head of Joko's transition team, said Dr Yudhoyono and Joko were on the same page.

"The philosophy is the same, levelling up, how people can benefit from development. We will continue the programmes that work well, and those that don't work so well, we will improve," she said.

The outgoing government has been criticised for neglecting the social impact of major projects, even as steady growth has seen an expansion of the middle class.

Its move to boost land connectivity, for instance, resulted in a major spike in the car population and a proliferation of toll roads in Java, where six in 10 Indonesians live.

But Joko's aides have said they would take a more people- centric approach to developmental projects, and not merely push infrastructural plans to the hilt.

Joko certainly shares Dr Yudhoyono's desire for better connectivity between different parts of the country, but stresses that more must be done at sea, and faster, from ships to seaports.

He also hopes to launch railway projects on the outer islands of Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua.

Ignasius Jonan, chief of state-owned railway operator Kereta Api Indonesia, said he had suggested the new government ensure that the railway extends to each of the five major islands.

That adds up to nearly tripling the current 5,500km network which serves only Java and Sumatra.

The cost of building 10,000km of railway track is about US$20 billion, or less than the annual spending on fuel subsidies - which the next government plans to cut, he said.

Special attention will likely be paid to Papua too. Dr Andi Wijayanto, one of four deputies in the transition team, said outgoing Vice-President Boediono highlighted the need to prioritise development in Papua and have it catch up with the other regions of Indonesia, including in infrastructure and education, when they met.

Natsir Mansyur, the Indonesian chamber of commerce's deputy chairman for regional empowerment, said that while all provinces need an infrastructure boost, greater connectivity among islands will also help local economies develop faster.

But first, observers say, an urgent priority for the next government will have to be about getting the basics right: ensuring a reliable supply of electricity as demand rises.

As an example, Raj Kannan, managing director of infrastructure consultancy firm Tusk Advisory, cited a series of mine-mouth power plants that are halfway through the procurement process or already in the planning stage in South Sumatra, and an undersea cable to Java that is already at the planning stage.

Projects like these should be stepped up "to show the public they are serious about fixing the infrastructure bottleneck that we have", he told The Straits Times.

Another basic item involves ensuring residents who lose their farmland or jobs, for instance, continue to have work.

Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, a former minister of maritime affairs and fisheries, said facilities that would create jobs in such sectors as tourism or fisheries should also be developed as rail and sea links are built.

"The connectivity that we build would then be relevant." (***)

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