Work on RM300 million Johor Bahru court complex in Kota Iskandar to proceed - Azalina

KOTA TINGGI: Construction of the RM300 million Johor Bahru Court Complex in Kota Iskandar, Iskandar Putri, which was abandoned four years ago, will be revived soon.

Minister in Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reforms) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said the project will proceed since the state needed a court complex that is large and centralised.

"Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi and I will visit the project site, which was proposed and chosen during the administration of former Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin.

"In about three to four weeks, I will travel to Johor Bahru and invite the Menteri Besar to visit the site and I hope the legal division will proceed (with the construction)," she told reporters after a 'doa selamat' at the launch of the Pengerang service centre and the Pengerang parliamentary constituency mobile clinic here today.

She said the courts complex will house several High, Sessions and Magistrate's Courts.

All paperwork, including the designs of the courts, has been in place since 2018 but had to be shelved when Barisan Nasional lost the 14th general election, the Pengerang MP said.

"So we hope the project will be revived. I believe there is no big court located at the Johor State Government Administrative Centre like other states," she said.

On January 18, 2018, the Johor Sultan, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar urged the federal government to expedite the construction of the Johor Bahru Court Complex as the existing courts could no longer meet present needs.

Azalilna also said she would be visiting the Pengerang Court Complex in Bandar Penawar here in two weeks' time.

"The Pengerang Court is now under construction," she said, adding that the court will be relocated from the previous site in Kampung Pengerang.

-- BERNAMA