KUBUTAMBAHAN, Bali: For years, the northwestern coast of Bali has remained a world apart from the region’s bustling south.
While those who sheep to the beaches of Kuta and Canggu are drawn to their leg restaurants, bars and nightclubs, here in the northwest, visitors come to relax, enjoy untouched beaches, trek high forests and stroll through villages where old traditions also thrive.
But all of that is about to shift.
An ambitious project that may regain 900 acres of the Bali Sea to shape an artificial island has been initiated by Indonesia, which has been commissioned to construct a new international airport in North Bali’s Buleleng Regency.
Designed in the shape of a large tortoise, the aircraft will have two runways – one of which can support the country’s biggest commercial aircraft, the Airbus A380 – as well as a jetty for seaplanes.
Shopping centers, convention centers, and hotels will be constructed in front of it in a recently developed district that is expected to be the same size as the latest largest city in North Bali, Singaraja. Additionally, it is planned to convert Buleleng into a film production hub, which will be known as” Baliwood.”
A new 60km toll road, as well as a 100km road network connecting Kubutambahan with the latest Ngurah Rai Airport, that will be constructed, in the silent North Bali city of Kubutambahan and Mengwi, in the outskirts of Bali’s investment Denpasar, may be constructed.
Through densely wooded hills and mountain ranges rich in diversity, the toll road and rail series will travel.  ,
Additionally, it is planned to convert the port on Bali’s north coast, which can only be used for traditional wooden fishing boats, into one that can accommodate speedboats, yachts, and cruise ships.
Prabowo Subianto, the president of Indonesia, has backed these ambitious plans.  ,
” I have a commitment to constructing a North Bali International Airport. We will turn Bali into the new Singapore, the new Hong Kong with the ( new airport ) area as its epicentre”, the president said on Nov 3, as quoted by Kompas news portal.
For some, it is a welcomed change.  ,
Of the 10 million domestic and 6.3 million international tourists who visited Bali last year, only a fraction- around 600, 000 of them- came to Buleleng.  ,
One of the causes of Buleleng’s high rate of unemployment and poverty is that the tourism-dependent island, which measures 5, 780 square kilometers, or eight times the size of Singapore, has a population that is five times that high. Buleleng is also Bali’s most populous regency where 826, 000 of the island’s 4.3 million population reside.  ,
Because everyone in our village is looking for work in the south or abroad, Made Sudirsa, the village’s chief, said,” We have no youth left.” The proposed airport will be constructed about 15 minutes away.
” We hope these projects will help to boost our economy and lead to employment.”