Thousands of Malaysian bus commuters pushed, shoved and beat on bus doors, trying to get a seat on a bus travelling to Singapore.

Police arrived at 8.30am to assist immigration officers and SBS Transit staff in herding the crowd into bus queues.

At the former Johor terminal, Singapore-bound commuters just walked through a single-storey facility to get to their buses.

The towering Sultan Iskandar complex however, has commuters climbing to the third storey for immigration clearance, a trip which takes about 10 minutes.

Immigration clearance takes less than a minute, but commuters hit a bottleneck when they get to the bus depot as there are not enough buses to move the number of commuters.

The option of walking across the Causeway, which was possible at the old terminal, has gone so more people rely on buses to cross over to Singapore.

Director of Johor State Immigration Mr Mohd Nasri Ishak also attributed the situation partly to the commuters' lack of familiarity with the new complex and its system. Traffic congestion at the complex is also not helping the situation.

According to Malaysian news agency Bernama, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad attributed the congestion to the haphazard entry and exit points at the complex. 'I feel the impact of its opening should have been envisaged and better preparations made to deal with the possibilities,' he said.

'If we don't plan carefully and think that a walk-through or simulation is enough, problems may crop up and that's what has happened at the CIQ complex.'

There are 48 bus lanes in the bus depot, 24 on each side with a mix of Malaysian and Singaporean bus services including SBS Transit bus services 160 and 170 that cross the Causeway.

While The Straits Times was at the complex's bus depot yesterday morning from 6.45am to 9.45am, more than 300 people were waiting for SBS Transit bus services 160 and 170.

When the buses arrived, at 10 minute intervals, commuters chased them and as soon as the buses stopped, descended on the vehicles in swarms.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.