Historically, the area surrounding present-day Iskandar Puteri consisted mostly of fishing villages, populated by Malays and Orang Laut tribes. Located on 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.
During Abu Bakar's reign, Jaafar Muhammad was appointed as the first Menteri Besar of Johor. According to a story from Johor Heritage Foundation (Malay: 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).
Johor Bahru Tengah
As many as eight local councils (majlis tempatan) were set up in the 1950s and 1960s to oversee municipal works in what would become the Johor Bahru Tengah or Central Johor Bahru District then rural areas (not to be confused with Johor Bahru Town Centre, now City Centre, which is also called Central Johor Bahru).[7] The smaller local councils were merged on 1 March 1978 to form the Johor Bahru Tengah District Council (Malay: Majlis Daerah Johor Bahru Tengah, MDJBT), as the local authority in Johor Bahru District's central rural areas. The former local council areas of Skudai, Lima Kedai, Gelang Patah, Kangkar Pulai and Ulu Choh made up the western part of Johor Bahru Tengah, while that of Ulu Tiram, Plentong and Masai made up the eastern part. Johor Bahru Tengah was granted municipal status in 2001, with its local authority upgraded as the Johor Bahru Tengah Municipal Council (Malay: Majlis Perbandaran Johor Bahru Tengah, MPJBT).
On the other hand, the former Johor Bahru Municipal Council (MPJB) – predecessor of the present Johor Bahru City Council (MBJB) administered Johor Bahru Town and its surrounding urban areas (also known as South Johor Bahru District), which later became Johor Bahru City on 1 January 1994. Another small portion of Plentong and the whole of Sungai Tiram mukims (then Southeast Johor Bahru District), were governed by the Pasir Gudang Local Authority, a privately-owned subsidiary of state entreprise Johor Corporation (JCORP). Kulai (by extension present-day Kulai District area), also a part of Johor Bahru District and known as North Johor Bahru District at the time, was governed by a separate District Council (now Kulai Municipal Council) since 1 January 1976.
Nusajaya Township
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. Saad was a young entrepreneur who built Malaysia's 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 Second Link has connected Iskandar Puteri to Tuas in 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 a new township which was eventually deemed 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 in West Johor Bahru District 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 development for the city centre. 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 other developers including Syed Mokhtar Albukhary's Tradewind, SP Setia (Bukit Indah & Setia Eco Garden), Ecoworld (Eco Botanic), and Sunway Group (Sunway Iskandar) to speed up the development of Nusajaya.
Iskandar Puteri
By 31 December 2015, the municipality's area had increased to 560.71 km2, as Nusajaya township develops rapidly since the start of the project.[8] But the Johor State Government, on a 2 July 2014 meeting, decided to transfer some parts of Tebrau and Plentong Mukims (or former local council areas of Ulu Tiram, Plentong and Masai) to Johor Bahru City Council and Pasir Gudang Municipal Council (later became Pasir Gudang City Council) respectively through a redelineation exercise of Kulai and Johor Bahru District Municipalities which took effect on 1 January 2016. This shrank the border of the Johor Bahru Tengah municipality to only its Western portion, which became the Iskandar Puteri City area on 22 November 2017, reusing Johor Bahru's old name.[9][10] The erstwhile Johor Bahru Tengah Municipal Council was also upgraded into the Iskandar Puteri City Council that very same day and is now headed by a mayor.[11][1]
Iskandar Puteri is Johor's second city, and Malaysia's 14th.[12] It is administered by its local authority – Iskandar Puteri City Council currently headquartered in Kota Iskandar, the administrative centre for the government of Johor State. The Johor State Legislative Assembly, Johor Chief Minister's Office, and Mahkota Square are also located in this town.[13] The city council is headed by mayor Hasrin Kamal Hashim, who took office since 14 July 2025.
Iskander Puteri is the second largest city in Johor. As of 2020, the municipal area of Iskandar Puteri has a population of 575,597.[14] It ranks as the 13th most populous urban centre in Malaysia (2020).[14]
The following is based on Department of Statistics Malaysia 2020 census.[14]
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, followed by Gleneagles Medini and Kensington Specialist Centre.[16]
Industry
Concurrent with the development of Iskandar Puteri, a new proposal to build a new port at the west coast of Johor was brought forward by the then State Secretary, Dato Ayob Mion. The new port, Port of Tanjung Pelepas was developed near the Second Link and caused the 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 Asia, Biocon and Insulet. This is followed by Nusa Cemerlang and Nusajaya Techpark at the adjacent land at Gelang Patah.
Notable landmarks
Puteri Harbour, covering a land area of 278 hectares (688 acres), and Forest City is a marina development that spans 687 acres (2.8km2) on the Straits of Johor. The area previously included attractions such as Sanrio Hello Kitty Town and Thomas Town.[17]
Legoland Malaysia Resort is a 5,500,000sqft (510,000m2) integrated complex containing the Legoland Malaysia Resort 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.[18]
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.[19]
The planned Kuala Lumpur–Singapore high-speed rail will serve the city at Gerbang Nusajaya in the future.[21][22] 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.[23]
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.[24]
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