Malaxi.com  Petaling Jaya Overview

Main > Malaysia places > Petaling Jaya

Overview

Petaling Jaya founded only in 1954 as Malaysia's first planned town, PJ has become a busy commercial and residential hub in its own right with over 450,000 inhabitants.

Addresses in PJ are remarkably bureaucratic. The town is divided into numbered sections (seksyen), which to further confuse things are denoted with just S (eastern PJ), SS (central and western), PJU (northern), and PJS (southern). The northern chunk is also known as Damansara. Each road in a section is numbered, so an address like "No. 38, Jalan SS 21/58" means house 38, road 58, section SS21.

Petaling Jaya is a satellite city of the federal territory Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and is located in the Petaling district of Selangor. Petaling Jaya has an area of approximately 97.2 km², arguably the state of Selangor's largest town. On 20 June 2006, Petaling Jaya was granted city status. The city council consists of populated appointed operatives of the federal government whereas originally, the municipality was composed of directly elected representatives.

HistoryPetaling Jaya TownIt was first developed by the British as an answer to the problem of overpopulation in Kuala Lumpur in 1952 and has since witnessed a dramatic growth in terms of population size and geographical importance. The development of Petaling Jaya centered around the area currently known as “Old Town” today. The first road built in Petaling Jaya was simply called "Jalan 1" or Road 1, and is now called Jalan Templer (named after the then British High Commissioner to Malaya, Lieutenant-General Sir Gerald Templer).

Until the end of 1954, the town was administered by the Kuala Lumpur District Officer and the Petaling Jaya Town Authority. On 1 January 1977, the Petaling Jaya Town Authority was upgraded to become Petaling Jaya Municipal Council or Majlis Perbandaran Petaling Jaya (MPPJ). Petaling Jaya progressed rapidly due to the massive rural-urban migration. As more people from rural areas immigrated, Sungai Way and Subang districts along with new areas such as Subang Jaya, Seksyen 52 (New Town or colloquially known as State; the name of the first, former cinema in the area) developed in areas under the jurisdiction of the municipality. Eventually, in a boundary realignment exercise in early 1997, parts of Petaling Jaya such as Subang Jaya, Sunway, Puchong and USJ were placed under the jurisdiction of the newly formed Subang Jaya Municipal Council or MPSJ.

Fondly known as PJ among the locals, it also acts as one of the centre hubs of Klang Valley (comprising of Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam, Subang Jaya and surrounding areas) for industry. True to its name "Jaya" (Malay for success), Petaling Jaya quickly became the most prosperous municipality in Selangor.

On 20 June 2006, Petaling Jaya was granted its city status and Dato' Ahmad Termizi Puteh, a former Yang di-Pertua MPPJ, automatically became the first mayor (Datuk Bandar) of Petaling Jaya. Petaling Jaya's local authority changed its name to Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya (MBPJ) or Petaling Jaya City Council following the granting of city status. On 15th August, Dato' Ahmad Termizi Puteh retired from the post of mayor

More info at Cool spots

Petaling Jaya Map

Menara MPPJ
Menara MPPJ

PJ

Millennium Square

One Utama Shopping Centre


Malaxi.com - Malaysia travel information directory - about petaling jaya