During a press briefing at the Youth and Sports Ministry on Tuesday, ITDC president director Abdulbar M. Mansoer said construction work on the street circuit was on track for completion by the end of 2020.

“The road construction for the circuit has reached 30 percent. We will start to put the asphalt on the road in January,” he told journalists.

Youth and Sports Ministry secretary Gatot S. Dewobroto said there had been no changes in the plan for the Mandalika MotoGP event.

“Everything has been going as planned. We will stick to the initial plan of using Mandalika for the 2021 Moto GP event,” he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Earlier, tempo.co had reported that Youth and Sports Minister Zainudin Amali hinted at the possibility of appointing some other province that was more ready to host the MotoGP should the Mandalika construction and preparation be going nowhere. The statement sparked protest from NTB residents and businesspeople.

ITDC started the construction project in September. The circuit complex will feature a 50,000-seat grandstand as well as a standing area with a capacity of 138,000. It will also host hospitality suites with a capacity for 7,700 visitors and a paddock area that can fit 40 garages.

IMI chairman Sadikin Aksa said his association had stood by ITDC for the past two years to ensure the circuit would be homologated by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), the governing body for motorcycle racing.

"This will be the first street circuit for motorcycle racing. Street circuits have been commonly used for car racing but not motorcycle [races]," he said.

"We will ensure that the homologation is in line with regulations as motorcycle racing is very dangerous."

"[Later] we will also be responsible for checking the readiness in the field, such as the marshal and supporting regulations," he added.

Its status as the first street circuit in the MotoGP competition, Sadikin went on, would attract many riders to compete in Mandalika.

MotoGP fans in the country have long waited for the competition to return after it was first hosted in Indonesia at the International Sentul Circuit in Bogor, West Java, in 1997. Abdulbar vowed that all the preparations were on track, as proven by the satisfaction expressed by Carmelo Ezpeleta, the chief executive officer of MotoGP rights holder Dorna Sports, during his visit to Lombok in October.

He said Carmelo was impressed with the construction, saying the schedule Indonesia’s MotoGP event would be announced in August 2020.

“The Mandalika street circuit will also be used for the preseason race in March before the competition starts. There is a possibility that the event will be held with spectators,” Abdulbar said.

ITDC plans to open ticket sales at the end of this month with a pre-booking system for 20,000 fans to be the first to secure their spots to see top riders like Marc Márquez and Dani Pedrosa in action.

ITDC sealed the contract with Dorna as the MotoGP operator in January this year and has the rights to host the event for five years.

Mandalika is one of five super-priority tourist destinations the government has earmarked for accelerated development as it seeks to achieve its target of drawing 20 million foreign tourists and 375 million domestic tourists next year. The four other super-priority destinations, dubbed the “New Balis”, are Lake Toba in North Sumatra, Borobudur temple in Central Java, Likupang in North Sulawesi and Labuan Bajo in East Nusa Tenggara.

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