JOHOR BARU (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - A comprehensive bus service covering Johor's southern development region is expected to be operational by the middle of 2021.

Work on the Iskandar Malaysia Bus Rapid Transit (IMBRT) project is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year (2019), said Ismail Ibrahim, CEO of Iskandar Regional Development Authority (Irda).

He said IMBRT is expected to cover 90 per cent of the Iskandar Malaysia region, spanning 300km of trunk and feeder routes.

The Iskandar Malaysia region covers an area about three times the size of Singapore, and includes Johor Baru city, Iskandar Puteri township (formerly Nusajaya) and Senai airport.

Datuk Ismail said the RM1 billion (S$335 million) funding for the bus project will come from the federal government.

"The remaining RM1.6 billion will come from the private sector under a public-private initiative," he told a media briefing about the project on Wednesday (Jan 17).

Giving an update on Iskandar Malaysia, Mr Ismail said the region had received RM250 billion in cumulative commuted investments between 2006 and Nov 30 last year. Sixty per cent of this were from domestic investors and and the rest from foreign investors.

Irda is confident of achieving RM383 billion worth of investments by 2025, hesaid.