Kluang

Kluang, formerly Keluang, is a town in Kluang District, Johor, Malaysia. Kluang was founded in 1915 as the administrative capital of central Johor by the British. It is located in the centre of the state and is within 90 minutes of all major urban areas of Johor. Kluang, combined with Batu Pahat, encompasses central Johor with a market catchment of over 700,000. Over the 20th century, Kluang's economy transitioned from rubber to palm oil and now has some of Malaysia's largest organic farms. The industrial sector has also grown significantly with multinational investment and a critical mass of tile manufacturers enabling the district to be called the 'tile capital of Malaysia'. The organic farming sector has also boosted Kluang as an ecotourism destination with key farms such as Zenxin, UK Agro and Kahang Organic Rice Farm.

WWW mpkluang.gov.my

History

The name Kluang derives from the Malay word 'keluang' which means a type of flying fox or rather a type of fruit bat, which used to be plentiful in the district decades ago. They have almost completely disappeared due to the combination of hunting and destruction of their natural habitat.
Kluang was founded in 1915 as the administrative capital for central Johor by the British. The main railway line linking north to south Malaya was built passing through Kluang and this helped in its growth. Roads were built to link Kluang to Johor Bahru towards the south-east, to Batu Pahat towards the south-west and to Mersing towards the north-east.
During World War II, the town of Kluang was occupied by Japanese forces on 25 January 1942 as they advanced southwards as it was abandoned by Allied forces withdrawing towards Singapore. General Yamashita moved his headquarters forward from Kuala Lumpur to Kluang on 27 January 1942 as he advanced southwards. The Japanese later used the airfield in Kluang to launch air attacks on targets ranging from Singapore to Sumatra.
In the mid-1950s the airfield was used for spotter planes and helicopters searching for communists who were encamped in the Bukit Lambak area and as an artillery base. It served as a base for the Kluang Flying Club which used old Tiger Moth biplanes. Communists were largely driven out of the area in the six months leading up to Merdeka in 1957. The area around the airfield was a substantial army garrison with many different units and a large hospital. The 75 Workshop was an aviation united based in Kluang from 1946 to 1970. The veteran's group continues to hold reunions throughout the world.
There was a very big flood in Kluang in 1969. The river overflowed by 7 to 10 feet and much damage was caused to property.
Today, the Malaysian Army maintains military camps in Kluang at Kem Batu Tiga and Kem Mahkota, which hosts the Malaysian Army Aviation Unit, 881 Squadron.

Geography

Kluang is located in the centre of Johor, a 90-minute drive from most urban areas in the country.
Kluang town lies in an area of undulating hills. The highest point is Gunung Lambak, a landmark 510 m mountain and which lies at the eastern oustkirts of the town. In the eastern part of the district lies the Gunung Belumut Recreational Forest.
The Kluang Municipal Council's administrative area, where the town is located is approximately 126.57 square kilometers.
Kluang is landlocked and has no seafront. The Mengkibol River runs through the centre of the town while the Melantai River runs through the eastern part and the Sembrong River runs through the western part.
Urban sprawl in Kluang from the 1970s to 2000 has seen Kluang expand in a horizontal fashion, roughly along the major roads leading west to east. The town centre itself has more than tripled in size in terms of the number and land area occupied by commercial and retail buildings in that time. Many acres of rubber and oil palm plantations have been re-developed into housing estates.

Demographics

As of 2010, total population of Kluang District was 319,629 people. In 2000, the population growth was 1.48%.
As of 2022, the population of Kluang District was 323,762 residents out of four million statewide, with 55.4% of them being male.

Government and politics

Kluang Municipal Council, previously known as the Kluang North District Council is the local authority which administrates the town of Kluang in Kluang District, Johor, Malaysia since 8 May 2001. The latter was formed on 1 January 1977 by merging the Kluang Town Council and the local councils of Kampong Paya, Kampong Gajah, Sri Lalang, Chamek and Paloh. Its current headquarters is located at Persiaran Utama Bandar Primer, replacing its previous location at Jalan Kota Tinggi since 1 July 2025.

Presidents of Kluang

To date, 38 people have been appointed as presidents of Kluang Town Board and Town, District and Municipal Councils, two of which are women.

#	Name	Term start	Term end
1	Isa Ahmad	1932	1945
2	Rahman Jaafar	1945	1949
3	Hassan Omar	1950	1952
4	Salim Sabtu	1952	1953
5	Raja Omar Chik	1953	1955
6	Zainal Abidin Mohamed	1955	1957
7	Abdullah Ahmad	1957	1959
8	Salleh Ismail	1959	1960
9	Raub Saat	1960	1962
10	Ibrahim Majid	1962	1964
11	Kadir Abdullah	1964	1966
12	Rahman Ahmad	1966	1968
13	Osman Wahid	1968	1969
14	Abdullah Rahman	1969	1972
15	Ithnin Maarud	1972	1974
16	Sulaiman Md Noor	1974	1976
17	Sukiman Sahlan	1976	1979
18	Rahmat Asri	1979	1980
19	Hasmoni Salim	1980	1982
20	Musiran Ali	1982	1985
21	Ismail Aziz	1985	1988
22	Johari Suratman	1988	1995
23	Zabha Umar	1995	1997
24	Abd Kadir Maksom	1997	1999
25	Hamsan Saringat	2000	2003
26	Jabar Md Tahir	1 January 2004	31 May 2004
27	Abd Razak Md Salleh	1 June 2004	31 January 2006
28	Muji Salimon	1 February 2006	31 December 2006
29	Mislan Karmani	1 January 2007	16 January 2008
30	Abd Rahman Mohamed Dewam	16 January 2008	31 March 2011
31	Ahmad Ma'in	1 April 2011	31 May 2013
32	Adib Azhari Daud	1 June 2013	20 June 2015
33	Ismail Abu	21 June 2015	16 January 2017
34	Nasri Md Ali	17 January 2017	31 October 2018
35	Mohd Rafi Abdullah	1 November 2018	30 January 2021
36	Norliyati Md Nor	1 February 2021	14 February 2023
37	Azurawati Wahid	15 February 2023	19 October 2024
38	Mohd Fahmi Yahya	20 October 2024	Present

Secretaries of Kluang

To date, 37 people have been appointed as secretaries of Kluang Town, District and Municipal Councils.

#	Name	Term start	Term end
1	Idris Mohamed	1961	1961
2	Jamari Karyadi	1961	1963
3	Ibrahim Abdul Ghani	1963	1963
4	Sarajudin Ali	1964	1965
5	Ibrahim Abdul Ghani	1965	1965
6	Abu Bakar Ahmad	1965	1967
7	Najib Masod	1967	1968
8	Ibrahim Abdul Ghani	1968	1969
9	Endan Dahlan	1969	1970
10	Mohamad Abdullah	1970	1970
11	Onn Ahmad	1971	1971
12	Mohamad Ibrahim Jaafar	1971	1972
13	Shahron Abdul Wahab	1972	1975
14	Ismail Yunos	1975	1975
15	Abdul Rahman Ahmad	1975	1976
16	Baderi Dasuki	1977	1980
17	Noh Mohamad	1981	1982
18	Fadhil Mohd Noh	1982	1986
19	Jumali Ahmad	1987	1988
20	Jabar Tahir	1989	1990
21	Halim Haron	1990	1992
22	Abdul Jamal Puteh	1992	1995
23	Md Tamrin Aliman	1995	1996
24	Abd Karim Abu Bakar	1996	1997
25	Norizan Kulob	1997	1999
26	Ayub Supaat	2000	2001
27	Kamarudin Abdullah	2002	2002
28	Mohd Shukri Mohd Masbah	2002	2003
29	Abdul Malek Ismail	2003	2006
30	Zulkiflee Abbas	16 February 2006	16 January 2008
31	Mulzaldin Mohamed	16 January 2008	31 May 2011
32	Mohd Radzi Mohd Amin	1 June 2011	15 July 2014
33	Mustaffa Kamal Shamsudin	16 July 2014	20 June 2015
34	Mohamad Radif Kosnin	21 June 2015	13 February 2019
35	Shahril Azizi Abd Gapar	14 February 2019	14 April 2020
36	Mohamad Yazid Baharudin	15 April 2020	31 December 2023
37	Azmi Ahmad	1 January 2024	Present

Departments

Management Services '
Finance '
Valuation and Property Management '
Engineering '
Environmental Health and Licensing '
Urban Planning and Landscape '
Building Control
Enforcement ''''

Units

Internal Audit '
Law '
One Stop Centre
Corporate Communications and Community ''''

Branch

Commissioner of Building ''''

Administration areas (zones)

As of 2025, Kluang town is divided into 24 zones represented by 24 councillors to act as mediators between residents and the city council. The councillors for the 1 April 2024 to 31 December 2025 session are as below:

Zone	Councillor	Political affiliation
Kahang A	Abdul Ghani Abdul Rashid	UMNO
Paloh A	Atan Ibrahim	UMNO
Paloh B	Au Xian Jie	MCA
Sri Lalang	Gan Lee Chiu	MCA
Kampong Melayu	Haslina Mohammad Dom	UMNO
Kampong Paya	Kelly Chye Pei Yee	MCA
Taman Intan	Izaluddin Akmat	UMNO
Town Centre	Law Mona	MCA
Taman Puteri	Mohd Saim Paiman	UMNO
Taman Suria	Law Yew Shen	MCA
Taman Megah	Raman M Govindan Nair	MIC
Sri Kluang	Mohd Khairul Ishak	UMNO
Kahang B	Siti Norreha Hussin	UMNO
Taman Delima	S Sarasvathi K.Sinatambi	MIC
Taman Kasih	Zainal Mohamed	UMNO
Taman Sri Tengah	Zakiah Pardi	UMNO
Taman Pelangi	Zaimani Jamaluddin	UMNO
Yap Tau Sah	Yap Zhi Peng	MCA
Taman Kluang Barat	Azizul Ali	UMNO
Taman Ilham	Abd Hamid Dahlan	UMNO
Chamek	Go Yen Hong	MCA
Gunung Lambak	Shey Risha Abdul Karim	UMNO
Kampung Gajah	Lim Yew Chin	MCA
Taman Seri Impian	Syed Hussin Syed Abdullah	UMNO

Agriculture

Since its founding in 1915, the area initially grew as a rubber planting place. There are vast areas planted with rubber in the early days under the Guthrie Ropel Group, Asiatic Plantations, Harrisons & Crossfield and various other rubber companies. An innovation was the process of vacuum evaporation of rubber latex by the Revertex company. Planters established the Kluang Club which is still thriving as the Kluang Country Club. Notable rubber plantations, surrounding Kluang town were Lambak Estate, Mengkibol Estate, Kluang Estate, Coronation Estate, Wessington Estate, Benut Estate, Paloh Estate, Sepuloh Estate, Chamek Estate, Niyor Estate, Kahang Estate, Pamol Estate and Kekayaan Estate.
Among the rubber plantations, Lambak Estate is elaborately described in the book Malabar to Malaya written by Ravindran Raghavan who was born in this estate in 1965. The book gives a first-hand account of life in the estate and also provides statistics about wages earned by a rubber tapper family residing in the estate between 1977 and 1986.
Among the early Indian settlers who "migrated" here during the British era were those who built some temples and the notable toddy shops in the surrounding areas of Kluang. Today you can find the remaining commercial elements in the "Little India" section of Kluang town. You can find "ONE" from a million interesting stories on the website containing the biography of Ravindran Raghavan, a native Kluang boy who grew in a rubber estate.
Rubber planting has over time transitioned to other types of crops. In the 1970s, rubber plantations were gradually replanted and replaced by oil palms. Kluang now boasts large tracts of oil palm plantations as well as cocoa and tea plantations. The former rubber plantation, Pamol Estate is now a high-performing palm oil plantation owned by IOI Corporation, considered one of the most efficient palm oil producers in the world. Pamol Estate has a total certified sustainable palm oil area of 12,044 hectares and a production of 56,528 tonnes.
Kluang has developed a diversified agricultural and organic farm sector. New kinds of plantation such as dragon fruit and organic vegetables have emerged. One of Malaysia's largest vegetable organic farms at over 100 acres, Zenxin Agri-Organic Food, is also located in Kluang. The Kluang Modern Agriculture Project was officially launched in 2004 and covers over 9,000 acres. Within this project, there are herbal and grazing farms, including the largest goat and sheep farm, UK Agro Farm with over 4,000 heads of sheep and goat grazing over 100 acres. Further out in Kahang, within Kluang district, is the Kahang Organic Eco Rice Farm, the first certified organic rice farm in Malaysia.

Industry and commerce

Kluang possesses a diverse industrial economy with sector-leading companies. From its early days as an entirely agricultural & horticulture economy, Kluang has developed various industries including polymer, paper, textiles, ceramics, industrial paints and electrical products.
Kluang is considered a "tile capital" of Malaysia. Leading companies such as MML, French-based, and house major factories in Kluang, contributing to Malaysia's position as a top 20 ceramic tile producer in the world.
There are a few multinational corporations operating in Kluang. Malaysia's largest tissue paper factory is owned and operated by Kimberly-Clark and is situated on the eastern industrial sector of the town. The Swiss-based conglomerate, Liebherr Group owns and operates a subsidiary, which manufactures freezers and refrigerators for domestic consumption and export.
One of the world's largest nitrile production facilities is owned by . Synthomer is the new name of Yule Catto & Co Ltd. which traces its existence from pre-independence Malaya. Yule Catto merged with Malaya General Company Limited in 1971 and acquired Revertex Chemicals Ltd in 1980, inheriting the Revertex Estate and industrial complex in Kluang. The sprawling Kluang facility produced over 120,000 tons of nitrile latex out of an estimated worldwide production of 550,000 tons in 2010.
The commercial heart of Kluang lies downtown within the Kluang Inner Ring Road. The downtown district contains the shopping centres, restaurants and entertainment areas. All the major banks, brokerages and other financial institutions are all located in this area. Kluang is also the home of Hong Yuan Hills Crematorium, situated in Jalan Berlian 2, Taman Berlian.

Transport

Kluang is served by the national railway, the North–South Expressway and local trunk roads linking it to all neighbouring districts. The neighbouring airport is in Senai.

Car

The closest on-ramp to the PLUS Expressway is at exit 244 at Ayer Hitam although travellers approaching Kluang from the south may find exiting at Sedenak and Simpang Renggam are the options.
Federal Route 50 begins in Batu Pahat, runs through downtown Kluang and continues on to Kahang, Jemaluang and ultimately Mersing on the eastern coast of Johor.

Rail

State railway operator KTMB has a station in Kluang, located at Jalan Stesen. The journey from Kuala Lumpur takes at least 5 hours, although is expected to be shortened soon to less than 3 hours with the new double tracking and electrification project. Through this project, Kluang is expected to be well connected with more regular and faster commuter and intercity services to places like Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Johor Bahru and Butterworth. The station is also connected to JB Sentral and thus Singapore, where it takes around 3 hours currently to get to the former. A new station was opened recently, and the former station which housed a wooden cafeteria known as "Kluang Railcoffee", in operation since the 1938 is still open.

Bus

The Kluang express bus terminal is located at Jalan Bakawali. It is located next to Plaza BCB and Prime City Hotel. Express buses depart from this terminal to most cities in Peninsular Malaysia. There are daily buses to Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and various other cities throughout Peninsular Malaysia and also Singapore .

Kluang to Johor Bahru: KKKL and S&S International Online booking:
Kluang to Kuala Lumpur: KKKL and S&S International. Online booking:
Kluang to Singapore: Fivestar

Air

There is a military airfield in Kluang. The air field is managed by the RMAF.
The nearest civilian airport is Senai International Airport, located in Senai, Kulai district, which is roughly 90 km south of Kluang or just over an hour's drive. Senai is also a hub for Air Asia's international destinations, mainly within regional south-east Asia.

Infrastructure

Kluang is served by a district police station and a fire station.
Kluang Hospital is managed by the Ministry of Health and located in the southern part of the town. There also a KPJ Kluang Utama Specialist Hospital.

Education

Sekolah Menengah Sains Johor, was the first government boarding secondary school with a special emphasis on science subjects. It was founded in 1973 and currently has over 500 students.
Kluang High School or Sekolah Tinggi Kluang is one of the best known schools in Kluang and was founded in 1939. It now has over 1,500 students.
The Chong Hwa High School is the third biggest Chinese secondary school in Malaysia and was financially established by reputable Chinese settlers in the 1940s. The school enrolls over 3,000 students.

Tourism

Kluang is well known for its outdoor recreation and farms. The town is surrounded by farming districts, some of which have established eco resorts and tours. Among the most popular are Zenxin Organic Farm, possibly the largest vegetable farm in Peninsular Malaysia. There is farm tour, restaurant and convention hall. The organic supermarket is a favourite for tourists to buy local organic produce before heading home. Close by is UK Agro Farm which hosts Malaysia's largest goat and sheep farm. Tours featuring the animals are popular with children. At the other end of the district is Kahang Organic Rice Farm which also features agro-tourism in Malaysia's first organic padi field. Both UK Agro and Kahang Organic Rice Farm have basic chalet accommodation.
Gunung Belumut and Gunung Lambak are popular with jungle trekkers. The Gunung Lambak summit is 510m and can be reached within two hours without any equipment. It is popular on weekends with Kluang families.
Kluang is also famous for its coffee, and this can be best experienced at Kluang RailCoffee at the Kluang Station. Established in 1938, the coffee shop still retains an old feel. It is best experienced during train arrival times, when disembarking passengers provides an atmosphere of days gone by. The most popular local delights are mee siam, half boiled eggs, variety of local coffee selections.
Also noteworthy is an authentic coffee shop located at no. 56, Jalan Lambak by the name of Tong Fong Cafe which was very popular with British soldiers when Malaysia was still under British rule. The operator is a second generation descendant of the owner and the coffee shop has been operating since 1954.
Like many secondary towns in Malaysia, Kluang also has its fair share of local food delights, with some touting Kluang beef noodles and the curry mee as local favourites.

Popular culture

Though not set in Kluang town itself, the 1990s Malaysian animation series Keluang Man shares the same namesake of the fruit bat or keluang.

Sister cities

Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia
Taiping, Perak, Malaysia

Notable people

Samy Vellu, President of Malaysian Indian Congress, Minister of Works
Ali Hamsa, Chief Secretary to the Government
Chieh Yuan, Actor and martial artist
Lee San Choon, President of Malaysian Chinese Association
Ng Tian Hann, Malaysia Chinese Movie Director
Shebby Singh, Malaysian former footballer
Nur Izzuddin, badminton player
Noraniza Idris, singer and actress
[(Bishop Dato' Charles k. Samuel,- Suffragan Bishop of the Anglican Church of West Malaysia