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City's
Profile |
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Infrastructure Utilities |
The
Johor Bahru metropolitan area is covered and well served by a wide variety and efficient
infrastructures and many of them are currently under various stages of planning and
developments and frequently being upgraded and maintained, despite the current economic
crises that hit many East Asian countries.
The corridor is currently served by two airports
in the 50 kilometres radius. They are the Sultan Ismail International Airport
(commonly known locally as Senai Airport) in Johor Bahru and the Changi International
Airport in Singapore. The Sultan Ismail International Airport, which is located
about 30 kilometres to the north-west of Johor Bahru City, is currently being expanded and
upgraded to become the regional airport for southern peninsular Malaysia and the logistic
and air-cargo centre for the proposed Teknopolis region, a high-technology academic and
manufacturing region spanning across the district of Johor Bahru.
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The artist impression of
the expanded Sultan Ismail International Airport |
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Also in the metropolitan area is Malaysia's third largest port, the
Johor Port, located in Pasir Gudang to the east of Johor Bahru City. This sea port
is also reputed to be in the same league with some of the world's notable ports like those
in Amsterdam, Bilbao in Spain, Bremen in Germany, Manila and Dunkirk in France.
Additionally, the
Klang Port in Selangor and various ports in Singapore also serve the corridor. Two new
seaports are currently being constructed at Tanjung Pelepas, located 40 kilometres west of
Johor Bahru City and Tanjung Langsat, located 10 kilometres east of the Johor Port.
The Tanjung Pelepas Port is reputed to be the biggest port being constructed in South-East
Asia and it's phase 1 of development will be operational by the year 1999.
Beside the industrial sea ports, there is also a
passenger terminal named Johor Bahru International Ferry Terminal (JBIFT). This
ferry terminal is part of the Johor Bahru Duty Free Complex. It has direct express
ferry links to Indonesia's Batam and Bintan islands, Singapore's Tanah Merah Ferry
Terminal and various tourist destination within the State of Johor.
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Johor Port |
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On land transport, the metropolitan region is accessible from other
parts of peninsular Malaysia through the 900 kilometres North-South Expressway (NSE),
various trunk roads and highways and the national railway network. The metropolitan
region is also accessible from Singapore through the 1.056 kilometres Johor-Singapore
Causeway, which was build by the British colonial government back in the 1920s and the new
2 kilometres long Second Crossing to the west of Johor Bahru City.
Currently, there are a few new expressways under various stages of
planning and development to form a better road network within the metropolitan area.
Among them are the proposed Johor Bahru Outer-Ring Road, which will run from the
East-coast to the West-coast of the metropolitan, Johor South-Eastern Foreshore
Expressway, Pasir Gudang Highway extension, Tanjung Pelepas Seaport Expressway, West Coast
Expressway, East Coast Expressway, Gemas-Pasir Gudang Highway and the Johor Bahru
Outer-Ring Road II.
The most recently opened expressway network in
the metropolitan area is the Second Crosslink to Singapore, North-South Expressway to
Second Crosslink Extension and the Johor Bahru Parkway, which links Johor Bahru City to
the above NSE Extension. This network of toll expressways commenced operation during
January 1998.
Currently, the major highways that are under
construction or upgrading are the Tebrau Highway, Skudai Highway and the Johor Bahru Inner
Ring Road.
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City Centre section of
Skudai Highway |
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Electricity is provided by Tenaga Nasional Berhad, the national
electricity provider operated by the private-sector. Treated portable water is
provided by Syarikat Air Johor Berhad, a semi-government enterprise. As for
telecommunication, there are currently four fixed-line operators, three public telephone
operators, six mobile-phone operators, two Internet Service Providers (ISP) and various
operators for paging services. Two companies are providing sewerage-treating services in
the corridor.
Garbage collection service in most part of Johor Bahru district is
currently coordinated and provided by Southern Waste Management (Johor) Sdn. Bhd. In
other parts of the State of Johor, it's either provided by the related local authority or
contracted to garbage collection companies.
On the Information Technology sector, the state government has
initiated the Johor Information Infrastructure (JII) project. This project will not only
upgrade the physical telecommunication and networking infrastructure in the state, but
will also provide networking services for the public in the future. Under the
project, the public will be able to acquire government and commercial services and
information on a broadband multimedia network. JII is already operational within the
state government's various departments and has made the State Government the first paperless
government in Malaysia. |
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