As the government brushes up on its plans to ensure transportation in the new capital city fully involves electric vehicles (EVs), it has come up with the idea of developing parking lots surrounding the area, a senior minister has said.

Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Wednesday that as all vehicles in North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara, both in East Kalimantan, must be EVs, non-EVs from surrounding cities such as Samarinda and Balikpapan would be prohibited from entering.

“Nonelectric vehicles cannot enter the new capital city. They must park and the passengers enter the city using public transportation. There will be parking lots for non-EVs” he told a discussion forum about the new capital city’s transportation system development in Jakarta.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has announced that the new capital city development will be focused on the basis of a technology-driven green city with an integrated transportation system. The new capital city development project is expected to cost Rp 466 trillion (US$33.7 billion).

For public transportation, the new capital city aims to fully use autonomous systems such as autonomous bus rapid transit and an autonomous railway.

Luhut said there would be lithium battery-production facilities in the new capital city to ensure the availability of power for the EVs.

“We will produce lithium batteries in the region with hydropower energy. At the moment [mining tycoon] Andrew Forrest from Australia is there to conduct [feasibility] studies to also look at hydro-green energy that will be produced after lithium batteries,” said the retired army general.

The plan is in line with the government’s vision of promoting EVs, which are considered cleaner as they do not use fossil fuels, with a greater goal of reducing the country’s carbon emissions while promoting domestic battery production. Indonesia is rich in cobalt and manganese, the main components for EV batteries.

Hayu Prasasati, secretary of the new capital city secretariat at the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), said the new capital would also be developed using transit-oriented development (TOD) methods whereby every center of business and entertainment would be able to be accessed within walking distance.

“This would be a compact city and will be developed into clusters. In every cluster there will be centers of activities,” she said. “So, it won’t be like Jakarta, where every time we want to go to work, we need to allocate two hours on the road in advance. With clusters, we can get to different destinations in just 10 minutes.”

The government is also aiming for 80 percent of people’s movements in the city being by public transportation, walking or cycling. The public transportation system is expected to reduce people’s travel times.

The new capital city will be developed on 256,000 hectares, with buildings and infrastructure occupying only a fifth at 56,000 ha and the rest green areas. The government will start developing road access to and from the new city this year.

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