Iskandar Puteri (formerly known as Nusajaya) is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

and the administrative capital of the state of

Johor Johor, also spelled Johore,'' is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. It borders with Pahang, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan to the north. Johor has maritime borders with Singapore ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. It is situated along the

Straits of Johor The Johor Strait (also known as the Tebrau Strait, Straits of Johor, Selat Johor, Selat Tebrau, and Tebrau Reach, also spelled Johore Strait) is an international strait in Southeast Asia, between Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia. Geography ...

at the southern end of the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...

and the southernmost city of continental

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

. Together with the adjacent cities of

Johor Bahru Johor Bahru, abbreviated as JB, is the capital city of the Malaysian state of Johor. It is the core city of Johor Bahru District, Malaysia's second-largest district by population and the second-largest district economy. Covering an area of ...

and Pasir Gudang, it is located within the

Johor Bahru District The Johor Bahru District is a Districts of Malaysia, district located in the southern part of Johor, Malaysia. It covers an area of 1,063.97km2 and has a population of 1.8 million, making it the second largest district in Malaysia by populatio ...

, the second largest district in Malaysia by population. The 15th busiest container port in the world, Port of Tanjung Pelepas, is also located in the city. Iskandar Puteri hosts

Kota Iskandar Kota Iskandar (Jawi: ) (formerly Johor State New Administrative Centre (JSNAC)) is the administrative centre of the state of Johor, Malaysia and its seat of government (Menteri Besar of Johor, Executive branch and Johor State Legislative Assembl ...

, which represents the

seat of government The seat of government is (as defined by ''Brewer's Politics'') "the building, complex of buildings or the city from which a government exercises its authority". In most countries, the nation's Capital city, capital is also seat of its governmen ...

of the state of Johor (

Executive branch The executive branch is the part of government which executes or enforces the law. Function The scope of executive power varies greatly depending on the political context in which it emerges, and it can change over time in a given country. In ...

Legislative branch A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the authority, legal authority to make laws for a Polity, political entity such as a Sovereign state, country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with th ...

History

Sempit Puteri

Historically, the area surrounding present-day Iskandar Puteri consisted mostly of fishing villages, populated by Malays and

Orang Laut The Orang Laut are several seafaring ethnic groups and tribes living around Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia and the Indonesian Riau Islands. The Orang Laut are commonly identified as the Orang Seletar from the Straits of Johor, but the term may a ...

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. In 1855, when

Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim Temenggong Tun Daeng Ibrahim bin Almarhum Temenggong Tun Daeng Abdul Rahman (8 December 1810 – 31 January 1862) was the Temenggong of Johor from 1841 to 1862. After he and Sultan Ali Iskandar Shah signed the 1855 treaty with the British G ...

won his claim over the

throne, he relocated the capital city of the now-divided kingdom from

Telok Blangah Telok Blangah ( , , ) is a subzone region and housing estate located in the area behind Keppel Harbour in Bukit Merah, Singapore. Telok Blangah is represented by three contiguous subzones of Bukit Merah in Urban Redevelopment Authority, URA maste ...

(

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

) to Tanjung Puteri and renamed it Iskandar Puteri. His son Maharaja Abu Bakar, the first Sultan of modern Johor, renamed Tanjung Puteri to

upon his coronation in 1868 to distinguish his dynasty from the old

Sultanate of Johor The Johor Sultanate ( or ; also called the Sultanate of Johor, Johor-Pahang-Riau-Lingga, or the Johor Empire) was founded by Sultan of Malacca Mahmud Shah of Malacca, Mahmud Shah's son, Alauddin Riayat Shah II of Johor, Alauddin Riayat Shah ...

. During Abu Bakar's reign, Jaafar Muhammad was appointed as the first

Menteri Besar of Johor The Menteri Besar of Johor or Chief Minister of Johor is the head of government in the Malaysian state of Johor. According to convention, the Menteri Besar is the leader of the majority party or largest coalition party of the Johor State Legisla ...

. 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. 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

's western and northern suburban areas, while Johor Bahru City Council (MBJB) administered downtown

. MDJBT was granted municipal status in 2001.

Nusajaya

In 1993, during the leadership of the fourth Prime Minister

Mahathir Mohamad Mahathir bin Mohamad (; ; born 10 July 1925) is a Malaysian politician, author and doctor who was respectively the fourth and seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia, prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 and from 2018 to 2020. He was the ...

, a plan for a second bridge connecting the

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia, historically known as Malaya and also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, is the western part of Malaysia that comprises the southern part of the Malay Peninsula on Mainland Southeast Asia and the list of isla ...

and

was brought forward by Halim Saad. Saad was a young entrepreneur who built

'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

. His past experience enabled Halim to secure financing from Bank for Renong Berhad (now

UEM Group UEM Group Berhad (UEM Group) is an investment holding company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Berhad. Its core businesses are Expressways (PLUS Malaysia Berhad), Township & Property Development (UEM Sunrise Berhad), Engineer ...

) 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

Muhyiddin Yassin Mahiaddin bin Md Yasin (born 15 May 1947), commonly known as Muhyiddin bin Mohd Yassin (; ), is a Malaysian politician who served as the eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2020 to 2021. Appointed as prime minister amid a 2020–2022 Malay ...

. 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,

was developed by

Cahaya Jauhar Cahaya Jauhar (Cahaya Jauhar Sdn Bhd) is a state-owned enterprise, Government Linked Company in Johor, Malaysia. It is a special vehicle joint venture company between the State of Johor under state-owned Johor State Secretary Incorporation (JSSI ...

in Nusajaya based on the Federal Government administrative centre at

Putrajaya Putrajaya (), officially the Federal Territory of Putrajaya (), is the administrative centre of Malaysia. The Seat of government, seat of the Government of Malaysia, federal government of Malaysia was moved in 1999 from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajay ...

as a catalyst development for the city centre. This is followed by the introduction of

Iskandar Malaysia Iskandar Malaysia (formerly known as Iskandar Development Region and South Johor Economic Region), is the main southern development corridor in Johor, Malaysia. It was established on 8 November 2006. Iskandar Malaysia is currently the largest ...

, 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

In January 2016, Nusajaya was once again renamed to Iskandar Puteri by Sultan Ibrahim, current

Sultan of Johor The Sultan of Johor (Malay language, Malay: ''Sultan Johor''; Jawi script, Jawi: ) is a hereditary seat and the sovereign ruler of the Malaysian state of Johor. In the past, the sultan held absolute power over the state and was advised by a '' ...

. Johor Bahru Tengah Municipal Council was upgraded to

Iskandar Puteri City Council The Iskandar Puteri City Council (MBIP; ) is the city council which administrates Iskandar Puteri City in Johor, Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, ...

on 22 November 2017.

Government

Iskandar Puteri is Johor's second city, and Malaysia's 14th. It is administered by the

. It houses

, the administrative centre for the government of Johor State. Johor State Legislative Assembly, Johor Chief Minister's Office, and Mahkota Square are also located here. Due to electoral division by

Election Commission of Malaysia The Election Commission of Malaysia (; Jawi: ), abbreviated SPR or EC, is a commission set up for ensuring fair and equitable operations in undertaking the elections in Malaysia. The agency falls under the purview of the Prime Minister's Depa ...

, there are four parliamentary and eight state constituencies (DUN) dividing the Iskandar Puteri area. There are (P161) parliamentary seat, (N46) and (P162) parliamentary seat. Eight state seats are Perling state seat; (N48) Skudai state seat and (N49)

state seat along with partial ( Bukit Batu for Ulu Choh and Senai for UTM) and ( Puteri Wangsa for Maju Jaya).

Administrative divisions

Iskandar Puteri consists of 11 administrative zones: * 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

Demographics

Iskander Puteri is the second largest city in Johor. As of 2020, the municipal area of Iskandar Puteri has a population of 575,597. It ranks as the 13th most populous urban centre in Malaysia (2020). The following is based on Department of Statistics Malaysia 2020 census.

Education

EduCity is a 600-acre (2.4 km²) educational area, consisting of the University of Southampton Malaysia Campus, Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia,

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

Multimedia University Multimedia University (; abbreviated as MMU), is a Private university, private research university in Cyberjaya and Melaka in Malaysia. Founded in 1997, it is the first private university within Malaysia and is a member of The Alliance of Gove ...

Raffles University Raffles University, is a private university in Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geograph ...

, Netherlands Maritime Institute of Technology, Management Development Institute of Singapore, Stellar International School, Marlborough College Malaysia and Raffles American School. Other universities in the city are

University of Technology, Malaysia University of Technology Malaysia (UTM) () is a Malaysian public research-intensive university ranked 188th in the world by QS University rankings. Its medium of instruction is English. Campuses UTM has three campuses – the main campus is in ...

and

Southern University College Southern University College (abbreviated as Southern UC), is a non-profit, private university college in Skudai, Johor, Malaysia. It is the first non-profit higher education institute and private university college in Skudai, Johor ...

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, followed by Gleneagles Medini and Kensington Specialist Centre.

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 A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : "related to the sea") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo ...

development that spans 687 acres (2.8 km²) on the

. The area previously included attractions such as Sanrio Hello Kitty Town and Thomas Town. Legoland Malaysia Resort is a 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.

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.

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 . Iskandar Puteri also houses the Puteri Harbour International Ferry Terminal, with routes to cities in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Rail

High Speed Rail

The planned Kuala Lumpur–Singapore high-speed rail will serve the city at Gerbang Nusajaya in the future. On 29 March 2021, the

Perikatan Nasional Perikatan Nasional (PN; ) is a Malaysian Parliamentary group, political coalition consisting of Right-wing politics, right-wing and Far-right politics, far-right political parties. It is the second largest political coalition in Dewan Rakyat w ...

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.

Road

Within Johor, the Iskandar Coastal Highway and Pasir Gudang Highway link the city to Johor Bahru City, while the Tanjung Kupang Road links the city to Pontian District. The

Second Link Expressway The Second Link Expressway is a controlled-access highway in Johor, Malaysia. It runs from Senai, Kulai District near the Senai International Airport, international airport to the Malaysia–Singapore Second Link at Tanjung Kupang, Johor Bahru ...

and North–South Expressway connect the city to the other states in

. 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.

References

External links

*
Onemap MBIP
{{Navboxes , title = Articles related to Iskandar Puteri , list = {{Cities in Malaysia {{Most populous cities in Malaysia {{Largest cities of Malaysia South Johor Economic Region Populated places in Johor Malaysia–Singapore border crossings Indonesia–Malaysia border crossings