JOHOR BARU, April 21 — The Johor state government is providing free shuttle bus service from tomorrow to reduce the congestion taking place at Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI).

Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi said the initiative is to facilitate the people caught in the congestion via pedestrian bridge from JB Sentral heading to the building.

He said the decision to provide the service was made after he chaired a task force meeting with various departments and agencies today which was set up to identify the problems and solutions of the issues.

"From the meeting, the state government will give its commitment to provide shuttle bus service for free.

"The shuttle bus will be provided from tomorrow until April 30 2022,” he said in a post on his official Facebook page today.

Onn Hafiz said the shuttle bus would take passengers at Jalan Tun Razak (City Square) and at Jalan Jim Quee to BSI every 10 minutes and the frequency could be increased at peak hours and on public holidays.

He said works to improve escalators have been identified as among the cause of the congestion for people using the pedestrian bridge between JN Sentral and BSI which is expected to be completed in the middle of June.

"Among those contributing to the congestion is the limited number of buses moving in and out of BSI and bus operators would only start operating from May 1 due to problems arising from the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said. — Bernama