The 1.7ha development will be integrated with the RTS Station in Bukit Chagar and the Immigration, Customs and Quarantine Complex on the Johor side. - Photo: MRT CORP
JOHOR BARU: A RM2.6 billion (S$786 million) development comprising a mall topped by four towers is being planned at the Johor Baru terminus of the upcoming Johor Baru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link rail project connecting to Singapore’s Woodlands North MRT station.
The project, currently called the Bukit Chagar Integrated Mixed-Use Development, also includes a hotel, serviced apartments, a health-and-wellness hub as well as education facilities.
The 1.7ha development will be integrated with the RTS station in Bukit Chagar and the Immigration, Customs and Quarantine Complex on the Johor side.
It will also be connected to existing and future public transport services in state capital Johor Baru, such as the KTM electric train service and city buses.
A multi-storey park-and-ride facility that can accommodate 1,550 cars and 1,015 motorcycles will also be built as part of the project.
The developers said on Thursday (Feb 13) that all the motorcycle spaces and some 850 car spaces – or nearly 75 per cent of the total space planned – will be ready by November 2026 in anticipation of heavier traffic flows when the RTS begins operation.
RTS Operations, the company appointed to run the rail line, has said the 4km cross-border rail line is on track for completion by end-2026.
To quickly disperse traffic in the Bukit Chagar area when the RTS Link is up and running, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said on Feb 13 that a driverless tram-bus network called the autonomous rapid transit (ART), which runs on virtual tracks across bridges and viaducts, is expected to service passengers.
The elevated ART system is favoured by Malaysia’s federal government to connect passengers to other parts of southern Johor state, Loke told reporters, compared with a light rail transit (LRT) system that would be more costly to build and take a longer time to complete.
“An LRT system can only accommodate a single rail system, whereas the ART can have the flexibility of both a bus and rail (tram) system,” he said.
“The implementation of the (ART) system is also more economical and it can be built faster,” he added at the signing ceremony for the project, which is jointly developed by Malaysia’s Mass Rapid Transit Corporation (MRT Corp) and local conglomerate Sunway Group.
A Johor state official said recently that such LRT and ART networks could cost around RM20 billion and RM7 billion, respectively.
Loke told reporters that the ART project is still at a “request for proposal” stage, meaning the government is asking interested parties to submit detailed proposals on how they would carry out the services and the costs involved.
The Straits Times reported on Feb 2 that Johor is considering a tram-bus system linking the RTS to three key areas in Johor: Iskandar Puteri, Tebrau and Skudai.
The RTS Link rail shuttle service connecting Woodlands and Johor Baru will have a capacity of 10,000 passengers per hour in one direction, and an expected ridership of about 40,000 passengers per day upon opening.
The Woodlands North MRT station is also the northern terminus of the Thomson-East Coast Line in Singapore.
Construction on the mixed-use development is scheduled to begin in March, and the entire project is expected to be completed by 2033.
No details of the number of residential units or the floor area of the proposed mall were given by the developers.
“This collaboration between MRT Corp and Sunway shows how the public and private sector can work together to develop world-class infrastructure without straining public funds,” Loke noted.
The RTS Link is expected to reduce human and vehicular traffic on the Johor-Singapore Causeway, one of the world’s busiest land crossings.
As at March 2024, an average of 430,000 to 450,000 people use it daily, based on data from Johor immigration.
Those numbers have exceeded the 400,000 average recorded in 2019, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The RTS Link is part of a slew of economic projects to boost Johor’s growth. Malaysia and Singapore on Jan 6 signed an agreement to set up the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone, which aims to ease the movement of people and goods across the Singapore-Johor border.
The zone will occupy 3,571 sq km of land across southern Johor’s east to west coast, covering, among other areas, the maritime port of Tanjung Pelepas; tech, manufacturing, educational and health hubs in the Iskandar region; Johor Bahru city; and Pengerang which is home to massive oil refineries and gas production facilities.
Sunway Group founder and chairman Jeffrey Cheah hopes the mixed-use project will serve as a catalyst for economic growth across the Greater Johor Baru area.
MRT Corp’s chief executive officer Mohd Zarif Hashim said the project represents the company’s rail plus property model, where land is optimised to integrate public transport, retail and housing purposes.
“Globally, cities have successfully regenerated themselves by integrating transit infrastructure into their urban planning, and the Bukit Chagar Integrated Mixed-Use Development embodies this very concept,” he said. - The Straits Times/ANN
