on 25 november 2012, in conjunction with the birthday of the sultan of johor, sultan ibrahim ismail ibni almarhum sultan iskandar al-haj (birth date: 22 november 2012) and the declaration of bandar maharani muar as a royal town of johor, for the first time in history, after 45 years of opening to traffic, sultan ismail bridge was closed for about 12 hours, from 3:00 pm to 5:00 am.