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Iskandar Puteri | |
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| City of Iskandar Puteri Bandaraya Iskandar Puteri | |
  .jpg)   From top, left to right: Skyline of Iskandar Puteri,Legoland Malaysia Resort,the City Council, theKota Iskandar Mosque, and theSultan Ismail Building | |
 Coat of arms | |
 Location of Iskandar Puteri in Johor | |
  Iskandar Puteri Iskandar Puteri (Malaysia) Show map of Malaysia Iskandar Puteri Iskandar Puteri (Asia) Show map of Asia.svg) 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 (asKota Iskandar) |
| City status | 22 November 2017; 8 years ago (22 November 2017)[1] |
| Government | |
| • Type | City council |
| • Body | Iskandar Puteri City Council |
| • Mayor | Hasrin Kamal Hashim(since 14 July 2025) |
| Area | |
• Total | 367.4 km2 (141.9 sq mi) |
| Population (2020) | |
• Total | 575,977(11th) |
| • Density | 1,568/km2 (4,060/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (Malaysian Standard Time) |
| • Summer (DST) | Not observed |
| Postal code | 79xxx |
| Area code(s) | +607 |
| Website | www |
Iskandar Puteri (formerly known asNusajaya) is acity and theadministrative capital of the state ofJohor,Malaysia. It is situated along theStraits of Johor at the southern end of theMalay Peninsula and the southernmost city of continentalEurasia. Together with the adjacent cities ofJohor Bahru andPasir Gudang, it is located within theJohor Bahru District, 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 hostsKota Iskandar, which represents theseat of government of the state of Johor (Executive branch &Legislative branch).[3][4]
Historically, the area surrounding present-day Iskandar Puteri consisted mostly of fishing villages, populated byMalays andOrang Laut tribes. Located on the western side of theTebrau Strait, the area was once known asSempit Puteri (narrow princess) as it was facing the narrowest point of theTebrau Straits.
In 1855, whenTemenggong Daeng Ibrahim won his claim over theJohor throne, he relocated the capital city of the now-divided kingdom fromTelok Blangah (Singapore) to Tanjung Puteri and renamed it Iskandar Puteri.[5] His sonMaharaja Abu Bakar, the first Sultan of modern Johor, renamed Tanjung Puteri toJohor Bahru upon his coronation in 1868 to distinguish his dynasty from the oldSultanate of Johor.[6]
During Abu Bakar's reign,Jaafar Muhammad was appointed as the firstMenteri Besar of Johor. According to a story from Johor Heritage Foundation (Malay:Yayasan Warisan Johor), during his journey to Sempit Puteri, the paddle of thesampan that Dato Jaafar was boarding broke. That event gave the place its new nameGelang Patah (broken paddle).
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 inJohor 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 presentJohor Bahru City Council (MBJB) administeredJohor 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 thePasir Gudang Local Authority, a privately-owned subsidiary of state entrepriseJohor Corporation (JCORP).Kulai (by extension present-dayKulai 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 (nowKulai Municipal Council) since 1 January 1976.
In 1993, during the leadership of the fourth Prime MinisterMahathir Mohamad, a plan for asecond bridge connecting thePeninsular Malaysia andSingapore was brought forward byHalim Saad. Saad was a young entrepreneur who builtMalaysia's longest highway,North-South Expressway, and apprentice to the former Minister of FinanceDaim Zainuddin. The cabinet approved the project, as the traffic at the thenJohor Causeway was already over-congested. The Second Link has connected Iskandar Puteri toTuas inSingapore. His past experience enabled Halim to secure financing from Bank for Renong Berhad (nowUEM 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 formerMenteri 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 byCahaya Jauhar in Nusajaya based on the Federal Government administrative centre atPutrajaya as a catalyst development for the city centre. This is followed by the introduction ofIskandar 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 fromSultan Ibrahim Building in Johor Bahru toSultan Ismail Building in Kota Iskandar. Several other catalyst developments were later added to Nusajaya. Among them areLegoland 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 includingSyed Mokhtar Albukhary's Tradewind,SP Setia (Bukit Indah & Setia Eco Garden), Ecoworld (Eco Botanic), andSunway Group (Sunway Iskandar) to speed up the development of Nusajaya.
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) toJohor Bahru City Council and Pasir Gudang Municipal Council (later becamePasir 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 (measuring 402.96 square kilometres (155.58 sq mi)), 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 inKota Iskandar, the administrative centre for the government of Johor State. TheJohor 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.
Due to electoral division byElection 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 arePerling state seat; (N48)Skudai state seat and (N49)Kota Iskandar state seat along with partialKulai (Bukit Batu forUlu Choh andSenai for UTM) andTebrau (Puteri Wangsa for Maju Jaya).
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 mostpopulous urban centre in Malaysia (2020).[14]
The following is based on Department of Statistics Malaysia 2020 census.[14]
| 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% |
EduCity is a 600-acre (2.4 km2) educational area, consisting of theUniversity 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.[15] Other universities in the city areUniversity of Technology, Malaysia andSouthern University College.
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]
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.
Puteri Harbour, covering a land area of 278 hectares (688 acres), andForest City is amarina development that spans 687 acres (2.8 km2) on theStraits of Johor. The area previously included attractions such as Sanrio Hello Kitty Town and Thomas Town.[17]
Legoland Malaysia Resort is a 5,500,000 sq ft (510,000 m2) integrated complex containing theLegoland 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]
Townships such asNusa Bayu,Gerbang Nusajaya, Setia Eco Gardens, 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]
ThePort of Tanjung Pelepas, which ranks as Malaysia's largest container port since 2004, lies on the western side of the city. It is the19th busiest container port in the world as of 2013[update]. Iskandar Puteri also houses the Puteri Harbour International Ferry Terminal, with routes to cities inIndonesia.[20]
The plannedKuala Lumpur–Singapore high-speed rail will serve the city atGerbang Nusajaya in the future.[21][22] On 29 March 2021, thePerikatan 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]
Within Johor, theIskandar Coastal Highway andPasir Gudang Highway link the city toJohor Bahru City, while the Tanjung Kupang Road links the city toPontian District. TheSecond Link Expressway andNorth–South Expressway connect the city to the other states inPeninsular Malaysia.
TheMalaysia–Singapore Second Link was built between Kampong Ladang atTanjung Kupang, Johor and Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim atTuas, Singapore. The bridge was built to reduce the traffic congestion at theJohor–Singapore Causeway and was opened to traffic on 2 January 1998. The twin-deck bridge supports a dual-three lanecarriageway and its total length over water is 1,920 m.[24]
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| Administrative divisions |
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| City councils (Majlis Bandaraya) |
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| Municipal councils (Majlis Perbandaran) |
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| District councils (Majlis Daerah) |
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