US$582 million mixed-use development with mall, hotel, apartments to be integrated with Johor’s RTS Link station
The mixed-use development will be connected to Bukit Chagar station, which is part of the Johor Bahru-Singapore RTS Link. It will be built over about eight years and connect to other transport services in Johor Bahru, including the KTM electric train service and city buses.
An artist's impression of the integrated property development to be connected with the upcoming RTS Link Bukit Chagar station. (Photo: MRT Corp)
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JOHOR BAHRU: Passengers using the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link in future will have direct access to a mixed-use development – comprising a retail mall, hotel, apartments and car park – linked to the RTS station in Johor.
The RM2.6 billion (US$582 million) development will be a public-private partnership between Malaysia’s Mass Rapid Transit Corporation (MRT Corp) and local conglomerate Sunway Group.
Both sides signed a strategic partnership agreement on Thursday (Feb 13) witnessed by Transport Minister Anthony Loke.
The 1.71-hectare (17,100 sq m) development, which will be integrated with the Bukit Chagar RTS Link station and Johor Bahru’s immigration complex, is set to be built over about eight years.
It is the first integrated development of such a scale to be built in Johor. Construction is scheduled to begin next month.
Its multi-storey car park will have 1,550 car lots and over 1,000 motorcycle lots. In its first phase, the motorcycle lots and about 850 car lots are expected to be completed by Nov 30, 2026, in time for the start of RTS Link operations in end-2026.
Its serviced apartments as well as other amenities – which include education facilities and a health and wellness hub – are expected to be ready by the first quarter of 2033.
No further details were given on how many retail outlets, apartment units or hotel rooms the project will house.
Plans for an integrated mixed-use development at Bukit Chagar station were previously announced and MRT Corp had, in 2023, inked a deal with Hong Kong property developer MTR Corp.
Officials did not explain on Thursday why the agreement with MTR Corp failed to materialise.
But Loke said the government-private sector partnership between MRT Corp and Sunway would “showcase to the world what a Malaysian developer can do”.
“This is a model featuring rail and property that is viable for the long term,” said Loke.
The mixed-use development will connect with other transport services in Johor Bahru including the KTM electric train service, city buses and a future intra-city public rail service.
The 4km JB-Singapore RTS Link is expected to begin service by the end of next year.
It aims to ease traffic congestion on the Causeway – one of the world's busiest border crossings – by ferrying up to 10,000 passengers an hour each way on a journey that takes about five minutes.
When the RTS Link service starts, cross-border travel time is expected to be reduced to 15 minutes from the current 1.5 hours during peak periods.
More than 80 per cent of the civil infrastructure works have been completed on the Singapore side of the project, and civil infrastructure works in Malaysia have reached 93 per cent completion, said Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA), MRT Corp and RTS Operations (RTSO) on Nov 29 last year.
RTSO is a joint venture formed in 2020 between Singapore rail operator SMRT and Malaysian firm Prasarana to run the rail shuttle service.
The railway civil infrastructure works in Malaysia encompass the maintenance depot, Bukit Chagar Station as well as terrestrial and marine viaducts.
The railway infrastructure of the RTS Link project is also now connected end-to-end from the Wadi Hana Depot in Johor to Woodlands North in Singapore.
