<![CDATA[The acceleration of infrastructure development through National Strategic Projects (NSP) in Indonesia positions the national state in a complex negotiation with historically entrenched sub-national autonomy regimes. This article examines the governance dynamics of infrastructure projects in the Special Region of Yogyakarta (DIY), a territory with asymmetric decentralisation that grants special authority to the Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat Sultanate and the Regional Government of DIY. Drawing on Shatkin's (2022) framework of infrastructure push and the urbanization of the national state, this study aims to analyse how the national state negotiates DIY's special authority in NSP planning and implementation, and how the Regional Government of DIY mobilises special autonomy instruments to influence route design, land acquisition, and the distribution of project benefits. A qualitative approach with instrumental case study design was employed, drawing on regulatory document analysis, media coverage from 2018 to 2025, and semi-structured interviews with key informants including regional government officials, National Land Agency staff, academics, and journalists. Findings indicate that NSP implementation in DIY does not produce the dominance of any single actor but instead generates a hybrid governance model that reconciles the national state's technocratic centralisation logic with local cultural and autonomy imperatives. Special autonomy instruments such as Palilah are integrated into administrative land acquisition procedures, while the Regional Government leverages its authority to renegotiate technical dimensions of projects. These findings extend Shatkin's argument by demonstrating that infrastructure push in asymmetrically autonomous territories produces a compromised hegemony that sustains national projects while preserving the symbolic authority of local institutions.]]>
