Iskandar Puteri

For the federal constituency represented in the Dewan Rakyat, see Iskandar Puteri (federal constituency).

Iskandar Puteri
City
City of Iskandar Puteri Bandaraya Iskandar Puteri
Other transcription(s)
•  Jawi	إسكندر ڤوتري
•  Chinese	依斯干达公主城(Simplified) 依斯干達公主城(Traditional) Yīsīgāndá Gōngzhǔ Chéng(Hanyu Pinyin)
•  Tamil	இஸ்கந்தர் புத்திரி Iskantar Puttiri(Transliteration)
From top, left to right: The Dato' Jaafar Muhammad Building in Kota Iskandar, Legoland Malaysia Resort, the City Council, the Kota Iskandar Mosque, and the Sultan Ismail Building
Seal
Location of Iskandar Puteri in Johor
Iskandar Puteri   Iskandar Puteri in    Johor Show map of Johor Iskandar Puteri Iskandar Puteri (Malaysia) Show map of Malaysia Iskandar Puteri Iskandar Puteri (Asia) Show map of Asia Iskandar Puteri Iskandar Puteri (Earth) Show map of Earth
Coordinates: 01°25′20″N103°39′00″E / 1.42222°N 103.65000°E / 1.42222; 103.65000
Country	Malaysia
State	Johor
District	Johor Bahru
Established	16 April 2009 (as Kota Iskandar)
City status	22 November 2017;6 years ago (22 November 2017) [1]
Government
• Type	City council
• Body	Iskandar Puteri City Council
• Mayor	Mohd Haffiz Ahmad
Area [2]
• Total	367.4 km2 (141.9 sq mi)
Population  (2020)
• Total	575,977 (10th)
Time zone	UTC+8 (Malaysian Standard Time)
• Summer (DST)	Not observed
Postal code	79xxx
Area code(s)	+607
Website	www.mbip.gov.my

Iskandar Puteri (formerly known as Nusajaya) is a city and the administrative capital of the state of Johor, Malaysia. It hosts Kota Iskandar, which represents the seat of government of the state of Johor (Executive branch & Legislative branch). ^{[3] [4]} Situated along the Straits of Johor at the southern end of the Malay Peninsula, it is also the southernmost city in Peninsular Malaysia.

Together with the adjacent cities of Johor Bahru (the official state capital of Johor) and Pasir Gudang, it is located within the Johor Bahru District. They anchor Malaysia's third largest urban agglomeration, Iskandar Malaysia, with a population of 2.2 million (As of August 2020 ^[update] ). ^[5]

History

Sempit Puteri

Historically, the area surrounding present-day Iskandar Puteri consisted mostly of fishing villages, populated by Malays and Orang Laut tribes. Located at the western side of the Tebrau Strait, the area was once known as Sempit Puteri (narrow princess) as it was facing the narrowest point of the Tebrau Straits.

In 1855, when Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim won his claim over the Johor throne, he relocated the capital city of the now-divided kingdom from Telok Blangah (Singapore) to Tanjung Puteri and renamed it Iskandar Puteri. ^[6] The name, however, proved to be short-lived when his son Maharaja Abu Bakar, the first Sultan of Modern Johor, renamed Tanjung Puteri as Johor Bahru upon his coronation as the Maharaja of Johor in 1868 to distinguish his dynasty from the old Sultanate of Johor. ^[7]

During Maharaja Abu Bakar's reign, Jaafar Muhammad was appointed as the first Menteri Besar of Johor. According to a story from Yayasan Warisan Johor, during his journey to Sempit Puteri, the paddle of the sampan that Dato Jaafar was boarding broke. That event gave the place its new name Gelang Patah (broken paddle).

As many as eight local councils (majlis tempatan) were set up in the 1950s and 1960s to oversee municipal works in the area. ^[8] The smaller local councils were merged in March 1978 and replaced by the Central Johor Bahru District Council (Majlis Daerah Johor Bahru Tengah, MDJBT), as the local authority in Johor Bahru's western and northern suburban areas, while Johor Bahru City Council (MBJB) administers downtown Johor Bahru. MDJBT was granted municipal status in 2001.

Nusajaya

In 1993, during the leadership of the fourth Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, a plan for a second bridge connecting the Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore was brought forward by Halim Saad, who at the time was known as a successful young entrepreneur who built the Malaysia longest highway, North-South Expressway, and apprentice to the former Minister of Finance Daim Zainuddin. The cabinet approved the project as the traffic at the then Johor Causeway was already over-congested. The new bridge had been connected from the NSE via Second Link to Jurong East of Singapore. His past experience enabled Halim to secure financing from Bank for Renong Berhad (now UEM Group) to acquire vast land along with the Second Link for his ambitious new township which later known as Nusajaya. The Nusajaya name was given by former Menteri Besar of Johor, Muhyiddin Yassin.

UEM Group through its subsidiary UEM Land (now UEM Sunrise) continue to develop Nusajaya as the new city centre of Johor. A new administrative centre, Kota Iskandar was developed by Cahaya Jauhar in Nusajaya based on the Federal Government administrative centre at Putrajaya as a catalyst to Nusajaya development. This is followed by the introduction of Iskandar Malaysia, Iskandar Regional Development Authority and Iskandar Investment Board to regulate and promote the development growth in Nusajaya. In 2008, the Johor State Parliament was moved from Sultan Ibrahim Building in Johor Bahru to Sultan Ismail Building in Kota Iskandar. Several other catalyst developments were later added to Nusajaya. Among them are Legoland Malaysia Resort, Puteri Harbour and Pinewood Malaysia Studio (now, Iskandar Malaysia Studio) and Southern Industrial And Logistics Clusters (SiLC). A new city, Medini was also developed as the capital for Nusajaya. UEM also sold part of Nusajaya land to the other developer including Syed Mokhtar Albukhary's Tradewind, SP Setia (Bukit Indah & Setia Eco Garden), Ecoworld (Eco Botanic), and Sunway Group (Sunway Iskandar) to expedite the development of Nusajaya.

Iskandar Puteri

In January 2016, Nusajaya was renamed to its former name, Iskandar Puteri by Sultan Ibrahim, current Sultan of Johor. Johor Bahru Tengah Municipal Council was upgraded to Iskandar Puteri City Council on 22 November 2017. ^{[1] [ citation needed ]}

Government

Iskandar Puteri

Skudai

Tanjung Pelepas

Gelang Patah

Pulai

class=notpageimage|

Locations of Iskandar Puteri and its suburbs

Iskandar Puteri is Johor's second city, and Malaysia's 14th. ^[9] It administered by the Iskandar Puteri City Council. It houses Kota Iskandar, the administrative centre for the government of Johor State, which houses the Johor State Legislative Assembly and Johor Chief Minister's Office. Mahkota Square is also located here. ^[10]

Due to electoral division by Election Commission of Malaysia, there are four parliamentary and eight state constituencies (DUN) dividing the Iskandar Puteri area. There are (P161) Pulai parliamentary seat, (N46) and (P162) Iskandar Puteri parliamentary seat. Eight state seats are Perling state seat;(N48) Skudai state seat and (N49) Kota Iskandar state seat along with partial Kulai (Bukit Batu for Ulu Choh and Senai for UTM) and Tebrau (Puteri Wangsa for Maju Jaya).

Administrative divisions

Kota Iskandar

Medini 9, Medini Iskandar

Administrative zones of MBIP

Iskandar Puteri consists of 11 administrative zones: ^[11]

• Iskandar Puteri
• Pulai
• Taman Universiti
• Taman Impian Emas
• Taman Mutiara Rini
• Taman Ungku Tun Aminah
• Bandar Uda Utama
• Taman Bukit Indah
• Gelang Patah
• Leisure Farm
• Tanjung Kupang ^[12]

Demographics

Iskander Puteri is the second largest city in Johor. As of 2020, the municipal area of Iskandar Puteri has a population of 447697. ^[13] It ranks as the seventh most populous urban centre in Malaysia (2020). ^[13]

The following is based on Department of Statistics Malaysia 2020 census. ^[13]

Ethnic groups in Iskandar Puteri, 2020
Ethnicity	Population	Percentage
Malaysian Bumiputera (Malays and Other Natives)	199,031	44.46%
Malaysian Chinese	164,815	36.81%
Malaysian Indian	51,739	12.4%
Other Malaysian	1,669	0.37%
Non-Malaysian	30,443	6.80%

Education

EduCity is a 600-acre (2.4 km²) educational area, which consists of the University of Southampton Malaysia Campus, Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia, University of Reading, Multimedia University, Raffles University, Netherlands Maritime Institute of Technology, Management Development Institute of Singapore, Stellar International School, Marlborough College Malaysia and Raffles American School. ^[14] Other universities in the city are University of Technology, Malaysia and Southern University College.

Medical

Afiat Healthpark was initially developed as the medical hub for Iskandar Puteri. Columbia Asia Iskandar Puteri was the first hospital to be built in the city. This was followed by Gleneagles Medini and Kensington Specialist Centre. ^[15]

Industry

Concurrent with the development of Iskandar Puteri, a new proposal was brought forward by the then State Secretary, Dato Ayob Mion, to build a new port at the west coast of Johor. The new port, Port of Tanjung Pelepas was developed near the Second Link and become the catalyst for industrial development at the Tanjung Kupang area in the west of Iskandar Puteri.

Later, UEM also developed Southern Industry and Logistic Cluster (SiLC) which hosts i-Park SiLC, IBP, Bio-excell and iTech Valley. SILC also hosts the largest insulin producer in the world, Biocon and Insulet. This is followed by Nusa Cemerlang and Nusajaya Techpark at the adjacent land at Gelang Patah.

Tourist attractions

Puteri Harbour (with a land area of 278 hectares or 688 arces) & Forest City is a marina development that spans 687 acres (2.8 km²) on the Straits of Johor. Sanrio Hello Kitty Town and Thomas Town were also located at Puteri Harbour. ^[16]

Legoland Malaysia is a 5,500,000 sq ft (510,000 m²) integrated complex containing the Legoland Malaysia and Legoland Water Park theme parks, plus a lifestyle retail centre, offices, hotels, service apartments and residential units. The main theme park includes 70 hands-on rides, slides, shows distributed among the LEGO Technic, LEGO Kingdoms, Imagination, Land of Adventure, Lego City and Minliand areas. Another attraction is the Legoland Hotel. ^[17]

Shopping malls in the city are Paradigm Mall JB, B5 Johor Street Market, ÆON Bukit Indah, AEON Taman Universiti, GP Mall, Mall of Medini, Perling Mall, Sunway Big Box, Sutera Mall, Tasek Central and many more.

FASTrack City will open in 2019. ^[18]

In March 2019, works on a new marina in Puteri Harbour kicked off, as a joint venture between SUTL Enterprise and UEM Sunrise. ^{[19] [20]} The first phase of the ONE°15 Marina Puteri Harbour ^[21] membership was launched in November 2020, with the opening of ONE°15 Estuari Sports Centre. ^{[22] [23]} Johor Tourism, Youth and Sports Committee chairman, Datuk Onn Hafiz Bin Ghazi was the guest of honour at the opening launch. The integrated sports complex was launched with the intent to introduce a world-class sporting venue in Johor with the potential to host national and international sporting events. ^{[24] [25]}

Iskandar Puteri residences

Townships such as Nusa Bayu, Gerbang Nusajaya, Setia Eco Gardens, Casa Almyra, Nusa Sentral, Taman Universiti, Nusa Indah, Taman Nusa Bestari Jaya, Bestari Heights, East Ledang, Estuari, Ledang Heights, Nusa Idaman, Nusa Bayu, Nusa Bestari, Nusa Bestari 2, Nusa Duta, Bukit Indah, Horizon Hills and Sunway Iskandar are located within this zone. ^[26]

Transportation

Sea

Puteri Harbour International Ferry Terminal

The Port of Tanjung Pelepas, which ranks as Malaysia's largest container port since 2004 lies on the western side of the city. It is the 19th busiest container port in the world as of 2013 ^[update] . Iskandar Puteri houses the Puteri Harbour International Ferry Terminal, with routes to cities in Indonesia. ^[27]

Rail

  HSR   High Speed Rail

The planned Kuala Lumpur–Singapore high-speed rail will serve the city at Gerbang Nusajaya in the future. ^{[28] [29]} On 29 March 2021, the Perikatan Nasional government failed to negotiate terms with Singapore and scrapped the project while compensating Singapore almost a third of a billion Ringgit (RM320,270,519.24), with the settlement representing the complete termination of the project and bilateral agreement. ^[30] The project was revived on 11th December 2023, by the His Majesty Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim ibni Sultan Iskandar prior to his ascension to the throne of Malaysian 17th Paramount Ruler. ^[31]

Road

Within Johor, the Iskandar Coastal Highway and Pasir Gudang Highway links the city to Johor Bahru City, while the Tanjung Kupang Road links the city to Pontian District. The Second Link Expressway and North–South Expressway connect the city to the other states in Peninsular Malaysia.

The Malaysia–Singapore Second Link was built between Kampong Ladang at Tanjung Kupang, Johor and Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim at Tuas, Singapore. The bridge was built to reduce the traffic congestion at the Johor–Singapore Causeway and was opened to traffic on 2 January 1998. The twin-deck bridge supports a dual-three lane carriageway and its total length over water is 1,920 m. ^[32]

See also

• Cahaya Jauhar, the Developer of Kota Iskandar
• UEM Land (now UEM Sunrise), Master Developer of Iskandar Puteri
• Kota Iskandar, Johor, the Johor State administrative center
• Medini Iskandar Malaysia, the capital city of Iskandar Puteri
• Nusa Bayu

References

1. "JB central municipal council to be upgraded to city council status - Nation - The Star Online". www.thestar.com.my.
2. "【今日柔佛頭條】新山 巴西古當 管轄範圍擴大 4地方政府完成邊界劃分". China Press.
3. "Johor's administrative capital Nusajaya to be renamed Iskandar Puteri". Straits Times (Singapore). 7 December 2015.
4. "Iskandar Puteri becomes Johor's second city". The Straits Times. 22 November 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
5. Kamel, Engku Ahmad (24 August 2020). "Iskandar Malaysia Updates" (PDF). Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA), Malaysian Dutch Business Council.
6. "Nusajaya is now Iskandar Puteri - Metro News - The Star Online". www.thestar.com.my.
7. "History of the Johor Sultanate". 22 January 2015. Archived from the original on 2 July 2015. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
8. "Latar Belakang". January 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
9. "Iskandar Puteri officially Johor's second city and Malaysia's 14th".
10. "Nusajaya City - The World In One City". www.nusajayacity.com.
11. "ArcGIS Web Application". onemap.mbip.gov.my.
12. "Profil Ahli Majlis | Portal Rasmi Majlis Bandaraya Iskandar Puteri". January 2016.
13. "Sub-National Statistic P.162 Iskandar Puteri". Department of Statistics Malaysia. Archived from the original on 30 January 2024.
14. "Inside Educity Iskandar: a university partnership in Malaysia". TheGuardian.com . 8 May 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
15. "THE BEST 10 Medical Centers in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia - Last Updated June 2023". Yelp. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
16. "Mega Yacht & Boat Services in Johor - Puteri Harbour Marina Malaysia".
17. "About LEGOLAND - LEGOLAND® Malaysia Resort". www.legoland.com.my.
18. Mohanakrishnan, Arjun (27 June 2021). "Covid-19 puts brakes on Johor motorsports project Fastrack City". Thevibes.
19. "Work on new marina in Johor starts, membership sales kick off". The Straits Times. 15 March 2019. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
20. Mui, Rachel (14 March 2019). "SUTL Enterprise, UEM Sunrise begin construction of new marina in Johor". The Business Times. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
21. "Estuari Sports Centre". ONE°15 Marina Puteri Harbour. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
22. "ONE°15 Estuari Sports Centre Now Open". The Iskandarian. 6 November 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
23. "Sports centre launched in Iskandar Puteri | The Star". www.thestar.com.my. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
24. "Sports centre launched in Iskandar Puteri". news.nestia.com. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
25. "ONE°15 Estuari Sports Centre officially opens today". Edgeprop.my. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
26. "Home | Puteri Cove". Puteri Cove Residences and Quayside. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
27. "Puteri Harbour". www.puteriharbourmarina.com. Archived from the original on 26 December 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
28. "Gerbang Nusajaya – The Gateway To Iskandar Malaysia - UEM Sunrise Berhad". 8 April 2015. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
29. "UEM Sunrise and Nusajaya Tech Park hosted the inaugural high-speed rail seminar". Archived from the original on 17 November 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
30. Baharudin, Hariz (29 March 2021). "Malaysia reimburses S'pore $102.8 million for costs incurred in terminated HSR project". The Straits Times. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
31. "Sultan Ibrahim Revive HSR Project".
32. "Second Link". eresources.nlb.gov.sg.

External links

• Official website
• Onemap MBIP