Seberang Jaya is a suburb of

Seberang Perai Seberang Perai is a city in the Malaysian state of Penang. Located on the Malay Peninsula and separated from Penang Island by the Penang Strait, it shares borders with Kedah to the north and east and Perak to the south. The city spans an are ...

in the

Malaysian state Malaysia is a federation of thirteen states and three federal territories, which form the primary administrative divisions of the country. Eleven states and two territories are part of Peninsular Malaysia, while two states and one territory ...

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

. Located at the southern bank of the

Perai River The Perai River () is a major river in Penang, Malaysia. It also acts as the mother river of Butterworth. The course of the river separates Perai and the Seberang Jaya suburb. See also * List of rivers of Malaysia This is an incomplete list ...

and east of

Perai Perai is a suburb of Seberang Perai in the States and federal territories of Malaysia, Malaysian state of Penang. It lies at the southern bank of the Perai River and borders Butterworth, Seberang Perai, Butterworth to the north. The area now know ...

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 The Penang Development Corporation ( PDC) is a state-owned economic development corporation in the Malaysian state of Penang. Established in 1969, it serves as the primary development agency of Penang, responsible for planning and implementing de ...

(PDC), in tandem with the establishment of the

Perai Free Industrial Zone The Perai Free Industrial Zone (Perai FIZ) is a Free-trade zone, free trade zone within Seberang Perai in the States and federal territories of Malaysia, Malaysian state of Penang. Located within the suburb of Perai and south of Butterworth, Se ...

. 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.

Geography

Demographics

, Mukim 1, the subdivision that contains Seberang Jaya, was home to a population of 48,785. Malays formed over 45% of the population, followed by

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

at 22% and

Indians Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

at 15%. The suburb also had a substantial non-citizen community that made up another 15% of the population.

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 als ...

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

Rapid Penang Rapid Penang (stylised as ''rapidPenang'') is a public bus brand operating within the George Town Conurbation in Malaysia. Established in 2007 as a subsidiary of Prasarana Malaysia, it serves as the main public transport system within the sta ...

's buses 703 and 709 connect the township with Butterworth and

Bukit Mertajam Bukit Mertajam is a suburb of Seberang Perai in the Malaysian state of Penang. It also serves as the seat of the Central Seberang Perai District. , Bukit Mertajam had a population of 12,079. Whilst founded in the 19th century as an agricultural ...

. 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 suburb of George Town in the Malaysian state of Penang. Located near the southeastern tip of Penang Island, south of the city centre, it is home to the Penang International Airport, the third busiest airport in Malaysia, as we ...

Penang Island Penang Island is the main constituent island of the Malaysian state of Penang. It is located off the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Malacca Strait, with the Penang Strait separating the island from Seberang Perai on the mainla ...

, catering mainly to industrial workers, as well as an interstate bus service to the town of

Sungai Petani Sungai Petani ( abbr. Sg. Petani or SP) is a city in Kuala Muda District, Kedah, Malaysia. The population of the municipal area of Sungai Petani is larger than Kedah's state capital, Alor Setar. It is located about 55 km south of Alor Set ...

in the neighbouring state of

Kedah Kedah (), also known by its honorific Darul Aman (Islam), Aman (دار الأمان; Arabic for 'The Safe Abode') and historically as Queda, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of ...

Education

Seberang Jaya has two

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

s, two

high schools A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

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 (formerly UNITEM), is the seventh private university in Malaysia. It is owned by Multimedia Technology Enhancement Operations (METEOR) Sdn. Bhd, a consortium of 11 List of universities in Malaysia ...

Seberang Jaya is also home to the Penang State Library (), the main public library of the State of Penang and the headquarters of the Penang Public Library Corporation (, abbreviated as PPLC or PPAPP).

Health care

The Seberang Jaya Hospital, administered by

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

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

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

nephrology Nephrology is a specialty for both adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (renal physiology) and kidney disease (renal pathophysiology), the preservation of kid ...

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 su ...

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

Retail

Sunway Carnival Mall Sunway Carnival Mall is a shopping mall within Seberang Perai in the Malaysian state of Penang. Located at Seberang Jaya, the shopping centre was opened in 2007 and is one of the retail malls run by Malaysian conglomerate Sunway Group. ...

, the sole shopping mall in Seberang Jaya, was opened in 2007 and is the flagship shopping centre of

Sunway Group Sunway Group (, zh, 双威集团) is a Malaysian conglomerate. It is headquartered at Sunway City, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. History The Sunway Group commenced operations in 1986, primarily focused on the development of Bandar S ...

within the State of Penang. Its main anchor tenants include

Parkson Parkson Holdings Berhad (doing business as Parkson; ; ) is a Malaysia-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, Vie ...

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 ov ...

. 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 subfamily Haliaeetinae of the bird of prey family Accipitridae. Ten extant species exist, currently described w ...

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

es and

hornbill Hornbills are birds found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia of the family Bucerotidae. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a horny casque on the upper ...

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

gopuram A ''gopuram'' or ''gopura'' ( Tamil: கோபுரம், Telugu: గోపురం, Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of th ...

, or main sculpture tower, in Malaysia, measuring tall.

References

{{Greater Penang Conurbation Central Seberang Perai District Neighbourhoods in Penang