CHILDREN might think the Johor government’s new administrative centre is home to a cat. After all, a theme park featuring Hello Kitty is in the works.
But others in Johor Baru are not so excited.
Kota Iskandar, as it is called, is in Nusajaya, about 30km south of JB and about 15 minutes drive from the Johor side of the Second Link.
The Johor state secretariat building, offices of the menteri besar and state secretary, and government office complexes are not all that Nusajaya has to offer on its 53 sprawling hectares.
A Legoland theme park is under construction, not to mention an indoor park featuring characters like Hello Kitty. Both will open in 2012.
Nusajaya is on former plantation land that is being transformed into a modern township. Targeted for completion in 30 years, at a cost of RM55 billion (S$22.5 billion), it will have 100,000 homes and a population of 500,000 when built.
Some 75,000 people already live there, as the government is marketing the area as an education and health-care hub.
The Columbia Asia Hospital, Britain’s Newcastle University’s medical faculty and British boarding school Marlborough College are under construction.
Owners of restaurants, shops and other attractions in JB are worried they will lose business to the new kid on the Johor block.
They say the relocation of about 6,000 civil servants to Kota Iskandar, now being carried out in stages, has already had an impact.
Fewer people have entered downtown JB since the opening of the new customs and immigration complex in December last year.
There are concerns about crime, too. But the government has promised to strengthen the police force, and Nusajaya is setting up gated residential areas.
Source : Straits Times – 12 Dec 2009
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