Seberang Jaya ( Jawi: سبرڠ جاي) is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

in the city of

Seberang Perai Seberang Perai is a city in the Malaysian state of Penang. It is situated on the Malay Peninsula opposite Penang Island, bordering Kedah to the north and east and Perak to the south. Its city centre is located in Butterworth, while its local ...

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. Located at the southern bank of the

Perai River The Perai River ( ms, Sungai Perai; ; ta, பிறை நதி) is a major river in Penang, Malaysia. It also acts as the mother river of Butterworth, and it separates Perai and the Seberang Jaya suburb. See also * List of rivers of Malaysia ...

and east of

Perai Perai is an urban settlement in the city of Seberang Perai, Penang, Malaysia. It lies at the southern bank of the Perai River and borders Butterworth to the north. Perai gave its name to the city of Seberang Perai, the mainland half of the State o ...

proper, the area was developed in the 1970s. Since then, Seberang Jaya has evolved into a booming area, with various commercial and retail developments.

History

The township of Seberang Jaya was built in 1970 by the Penang Development Corporation (PDC), in tandem with the establishment of the Perai Industrial Estate. The construction of the new township was aimed at providing a housing area adjacent to the newly built industries in

, and erasing social and economic inequalities between the urban and rural inhabitants.

Transportation

Two major highways cut through the heart of Seberang Jaya – the North–South Expressway and the

Butterworth–Kulim Expressway Butterworth–Kulim Expressway, BKE, ( Malay: ''Lebuhraya Butterworth–Kulim''), is the only opened toll system's expressway in Penang, Malaysia. The expressway connects Butterworth, Penang in the west to Lunas, Kedah in the east. It is also ...

. Both expressways intersect at the former's Interchange 163 within the centre of the township.

Rapid Penang Rapid Penang (styled as ''rapidPenang'') is a public bus brand in the State of Penang, Malaysia. Formed as a subsidiary of Prasarana Malaysia in 2007, to date it is the main public transport operator within Penang; its bus network serves commut ...

's buses 703 and 709 connect the township with

Butterworth Butterworth may refer to: Places * Butterworth (ancient township), a former township centred on Milnrow, in the then Parish of Rochdale, England, United Kingdom * Butterworth, Eastern Cape, now also known as Gcuwa, a town located in South Africa ...

and

Bukit Mertajam Bukit Mertajam ( Jawi:بوكيت مرتاجم) is the administrative centre of the city of Seberang Perai in Penang, Malaysia. It also serves as the seat of the Central Seberang Perai District. , Bukit Mertajam (core) contains a total of 13, ...

. These are complemented by Rapid Penang's Congestion Alleviation Transport (CAT), a free-of-charge transit service within Seberang Jaya. In addition, Rapid Penang also operates Bridge Express Shuttle Transit (BEST) bus services towards

Bayan Lepas Bayan Lepas is a town in the Malaysian state of Penang. It is located within the Southwest Penang Island District, near the southeastern tip of Penang Island. Founded in the 19th century, Bayan Lepas has various industries. History Bayan Lep ...

Penang Island Penang Island ( ms, Pulau Pinang; zh, 檳榔嶼; ta, பினாங்கு தீவு) is part of the state of Penang, on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. It was named Prince of Wales Island when it was occupied by the British Ea ...

, catering mainly to industrial workers, as well as an interstate bus service to the town of Sungai Petani in the neighbouring state of

Kedah Kedah (), also known by its honorific Darul Aman (Islam), Aman and historically as Queda, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The state covers a total area ...

Education

Seberang Jaya contains two

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

s, two

high schools A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

and a private tertiary institution. Primary schools * SRK Seberang Jaya * SRK Seberang Jaya 2 High schools * SMK Tun Hussein Onn * SMK Seberang Jaya Private college *

Open University Malaysia Open University Malaysia, abbreviated as OUM, is the 7th Malaysian private university and it is owned by the Multimedia Technology Enhancement Operations (METEOR) Sdn. Bhd, a consortium of 11 Malaysian public universities. It leverages o ...

Aside from these, Seberang Jaya is home to the Penang State Library, the main public library of the State of Penang.

Health care

The Seberang Jaya Hospital, administered by

's Ministry of Health, is one of the six public hospitals scattered throughout the State of Penang. It also serves as the main hospital within the entire municipality of

. The 393-bed hospital offers various specialist treatments and procedures, such as general surgery,

nephrology Nephrology (from Greek'' nephros'' "kidney", combined with the suffix ''-logy'', "the study of") is a specialty of adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (ren ...

and

obstetrics Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...

. An ongoing upgrade of the hospital, slated for completion by 2021, is expected to increase its capacity by 316 beds.

Shopping

Sunway Carnival Mall new wing main entrance (220921)

Sunway Carnival Mall, the sole shopping mall in Seberang Jaya, was opened in 2007 and is the flagship shopping centre of Sunway Group within the State of Penang. Its main anchor tenants include

Parkson Parkson Holdings Berhad (doing business as Parkson; ; ) is an Asian-based department store operator with an extensive network of 131 stores as of 2017, spanning approximately 2.1 million m2 of retail space across cities in Malaysia, China, Vietnam ...

and

Golden Screen Cinemas Golden Screen Cinemas Sdn Bhd (GSC) is Malaysia's largest cinema exhibitor and a wholly-owned subsidiary of PPB Group Berhad (a member of the Kuok Group), which is an exhibitor and distributor of movies and content in Malaysia. It operates over ...

. The Sam's Groceria closed down during MCO and being replaced by Noko variety store. The mall also contains the Sunway Carnival Convention Centre, a major venue for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE). An ongoing expansion of the mall is expected to increase its gross floor area to by 2022.

Tourist attractions

The Penang Bird Park, founded in 1988 (Opened on 26 November), was Malaysia's first aviary. It contains more than 300 species of birds, including

sea eagle A sea eagle or fish eagle (also called erne or ern, mostly in reference to the white-tailed eagle) is any of the birds of prey in the genus ''Haliaeetus'' in the bird of prey family Accipitridae. Taxonomy and evolution The genus ''Haliaeetus'' ...

flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of Wader, wading bird in the Family (biology), family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas ...

es and

hornbill Hornbills (Bucerotidae) are a family (biology), family of bird found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a Casque (an ...

s. Situated at Jalan Todak, the Arulmigu Karumariamman Temple has the largest

gopuram A ''gopuram'' or ''gopura'' ( Tamil: கோபுரம், Malayalam: ഗോപുരം, Kannada: ಗೋಪುರ, Telugu: గోపురం) is a monumental entrance tower, usually ornate, at the entrance of a Hindu temple, in the South I ...

in Malaysia, measuring tall.

References

{{Penang Central Seberang Perai District Neighbourhoods in Penang