Observation wheel specialists Challenger Acquisitions have announced the procurement of land to develop a 125m (410m) giant observation wheel in Jakarta, Indonesia, in partnership with the Challenger-owned Starneth Group and local company Developer.

Starneth Group – which was acquired by Challenger in June 2015 – has agreed and signed an initial contract with Developer for turnkey project management services for the design, procurement, fabrication, assembly, erection and commissioning of the wheel.

According to Challenger, Developer is currently finalising financing for the project, which will take two years to develop from the official groundbreaking. The 125m wheel will comprise 18 capsules, with each able to carry 40 passengers, with a maximum capacity of 1,440 customers per hour.

Challenger CEO, Mark Gustafson, said the wheel would be similar to the 135m (443ft) London Eye, which cost £70m (US$97.6m, €88.8m) to develop.

“Securing the land site in Jakarta was one of the two remaining hurdles for this project. Once Developer secures project financing then Jakarta will be the first project in our pipeline of 25 giant observation wheels, which we are currently evaluating,” said Gustafson.

“This is in line with our strategy to secure at least one new giant observation wheel project each year.

“As our engineering work on the New York Wheel project starts to reduce ahead of its targeted opening in 2017, then work on the Jakarta project will take over. In the meantime we are also currently in discussions with other developers with regards to giant observation wheels within our pipeline and look forward to providing further updates on these exciting developments in due course.”