Johor–Singapore Causeway 新柔长堤 Tambak Johor |
|
---|---|
Carries |
Motor vehicles Single-track railway |
Crosses | Straits of Johor |
Locale |
Johor Bahru, Malaysia Woodlands, Singapore |
Official name | Johor–Singapore Causeway |
Maintained by |
Malaysia PLUS Malaysia Berhad (Projek Lebuhraya Usahasama Berhad) Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) |
Characteristics | |
Total length | 1 km |
History | |
Opened | 1923 |
The Johor–Singapore Causeway (Chinese: 新柔长堤, Malay: Tambak Johor) is a 1056-metre causeway that links the city of Johor Bahru in Malaysia across the Straits of Johor to the town of Woodlands in Singapore. It serves as a road and rail link, as well as water piping into Singapore.
There were several calls by the Malaysians to remove the Causeway. The first call occurred in the Johor state legislative council when the speaker said that the Causeway was "more a hindrance than anything else" while a port should be built close to Johor Bahru to rejuvenate the city's economy. The state of Johor currently already has developed ports including Pasir Gudang and Tanjong Pelapas.
The second demand came in year 1986 when Israeli President Chaim Herzog visited Singapore. At that time, the Singapore Government was criticised by Malaysian politicians and the press for allowing his visit.
Under the former Mahathir administration, the Malaysian government scheduled to build a new customs, immigration and quarantine complex on a hilltop near the Johor Bahru railway station. A bridge was planned to link the new customs complex with the city square. The project was named Southern Integrated Gateway (Gerbang Selatan Bersepadu) by the government. The project was awarded to a construction company, Gerbang Perdana. During the construction, one of the two underpass channels located at the end of the old customs complex had been blocked. Roads exiting from the old customs complex have been diverted. The design envisages a re-direction of traffic flow to the new customs complex after the completion of the proposed new bridge to Singapore. The old customs complex will be torn down once the new customs complex begins operation. All this while, no agreement had been reached with the Singapore Government on replacing the causeway with a proposed new bridge.