Greater Kuala Lumpur

"KL metropolis" redirects here. For the integrated development project within the metropolitan area, see KL Metropolis.

Not to be confused with Klang Valley.

Greater Kuala Lumpur
Metropolitan area
From top, clockwise: Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Genting Highlands, Putrajaya, Seremban, Klang, Shah Alam
Country	Malaysia
Region	Federal Territories Selangor Pahang Negeri Sembilan Perak
Area
• Total	5,194.72 km2 (2,005.69 sq mi)
Population  (2020)
• Total	8,455,029
• Density	2,708/km2 (7,010/sq mi)
GDP [1]
• Metro	US$142 billion
• Per capita	US$17,086
Time zone	UTC+8 (MST)
Area code(s)	03

Greater Kuala Lumpur as seen from space

Greater Kuala Lumpur is the geographical term that determines the boundaries of metropolitan Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Though similar to the term "Klang Valley", there remains a variation between the two. It is similar to Greater London and Greater Toronto. The metropolitan area covers 5,194.72 square km of land.

History

Pre-1974

Kuala Lumpur has been declared the capital city of Federated Malay States in 1896, and when the group of states changes and expands to Federation of Malaya and later Malaysia, the town status has been kept as such. However, Kuala Lumpur itself is part of the larger Kuala Lumpur district of Selangor, which area also includes Ampang, Batu Caves, Gombak, Ulu Klang, Petaling Jaya, Puchong and Sungai Buloh. ^{[2] [3]} Until 1974, the city remains as part of Selangor.

Developments has been ongoing out of the city border long before it as Petaling Jaya was made a new township just beside Kuala Lumpur, converted from Effingham rubber estate on 1952 to accommodate the growing population of the capital and road infrastructures like newly opened Jalan Klang Lama spurs the growth of towns around the original Klang Valley corridor areas. Batu Caves and Kajang, both situated just north and south of the city border also already served as feeder towns of the capital.

Major development started to spur around Klang River corridor since the 60s as after Singapore exit from the federation, Port Swettenham in Klang now has been targeted as the nation's main port. Big infrastructure projects such as the new Federal Highway has been planned to ensure straightforward flow of products between the capital and the port. Subang Airport in Subang also serves as the main gateway to the capital.

Kuala Lumpur township has been declared a city in 1972 and due to political factors and its status as the federal capital, the city is carved out from Selangor to be made as Federal Territories, changing entirely the development scenarios of the areas.

Historical district maps of Selangor, showing district borders before the 1974-1975 district revisions

After 1974

Selangor decided to revise their district areas which not only affect the former Kuala Lumpur district but also neighbouring districts of Klang, Hulu Selangor and Hulu Langat where from parts of those districts, two new districts has been created namely Gombak and Petaling. Sepang, while not originally part of any of Kuala Lumpur areas, was also made a full district due to the revisions, carved out from Hulu Langat and Kuala Langat district. ^[4]

Klang was made a temporary state capital of Selangor from 1974 to 1977, where a new state capital is declared in Sungai Renggam, later renamed as Shah Alam. Sungai Renggam has been marked for development as the new state administration center back in 1963. The construction of the new main campus of Universiti Teknologi MARA also accompany the new capital development. In Hulu Langat, a new township of Bandar Baru Bangi was being built on the site of Westcountry Estate between Kajang and Bangi to accompany the development of the new main campus of National University of Malaysia (UKM) by Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS). ^[5] Similar situation happened in Serdang where University of Putra Malaysia (formerly known as Universiti Pertanian Malaysia) build their main campus there, spurring new townships around Serdang and Seri Kembangan.

In Gombak, Kuala Lumpur–Karak Expressway are build to provide the East Coast states direct access to the capital city, where the expressway terminus starts from the town.

1980s

In the 1980s, new township development from the past decades started to take their shape. With the nation moves into large scale industrialization, more township around the capital starts to emerge, grow and expands.

The North–South Expressway, an interstate expressway project was kicked off by phases to connect Kuala Lumpur better to other states on the West Coast of the peninsular. While most of it runs parallel to the existing Federal Route 1, the first section in the area, Kuala Lumpur–Seremban Expressway section includes the new townships of Seri Kembangan and Bandar Baru Bangi instead as route to Seremban and provides more straightforward access between the federal capital and the Negeri Sembilan state capital, providing development potentials on involved areas. The section opens in 1982.

Other than the state administration centre, Shah Alam town area now hosts industrial areas as well, with sites includes Malaysia's first automotive company Proton headquarter and first main production plant which started operating in 1984.

Port Klang Authority started moving towards privatisation with divesting their current container terminal to a private entity, Klang Container Terminal Berhad. At the same time, a bypass road from Sungai Rasau was built to help diverting traffic to the main port area from Federal Highway named North Klang Straits Bypass, the first privately operated toll road in the Klang Valley area. ^[6]

1990s

The 1990s saw a major expansion of the metropolitan area of Kuala Lumpur with various megaproject taking shapes around the area. This is also the decade which shapes the current township areas of the metropolitan area.

A new airport for Kuala Lumpur and a new federal government administration centre has been planned to replace their current location in Kuala Lumpur and Subang. The airport was originally mooted to be somewhere around Hulu Selangor and the administrative center was mooted to be in Janda Baik, Bentong, Pahang, but ultimately the airport is chosen to be in Sepang and the new administrative center is in Prang Besar Estate, where later the location is named Putrajaya. Both started operational between 1998 and 1999.

Due to the approximate of these megaprojects between each other and the city center of Kuala Lumpur, a special economic corridor, Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) is established. The corridor aims to be a high-technology economic development area in Klang Valley, and includes Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Puchong, Serdang and Nilai of Negeri Sembilan as well as the new township established next to Putrajaya, Cyberjaya which will be one of the main area of the corridor.

Port Klang expands their activity by establishing a new cargo terminal in Pulau Indah, which later called Westport. Another terminal, called Northport was opened in 2000 and situated in the northern area of the Klang District.

All other new residential and commercial areas also starts to grow such as Kota Kemuning in southern Shah Alam, UEP Subang Jaya (later abbreviated as USJ), Bandar Sultan Suleiman in north of Klang, Bandar Baru Selayang in Gombak, Bandar Utama in Petaling Jaya, Salak Tinggi in Sepang.

Definition

Evolution of Greater KL

Settlements in Greater KL light out during night

Greater Kuala Lumpur is conterminous with the National Growth Conurbation, which spans the Klang Valley, western Negeri Sembilan to the south, and the topographically mountainous western frontier of Pahang to the east. It is defined as an area covered by 14 municipalities surrounding Kuala Lumpur as the central economic area. Each of the municipal areas are governed by separate local authorities: ^{[7] [8] [9] [10]}

Usage

Greater KL is a relatively new term as compared to the more prevalent and established Klang Valley term, and sometimes is always mistaken for Klang Valley despite both has two different definition.

The lack of introduction and promotion of the term in the national language (Bahasa Melayu) also made it fell out of favor from general public usage. Some equivalent translation has been proposed such as Kuala Lumpur Raya, but it was barely used by any official agencies.

Statistics

In 2010, the Greater KL population was estimated at close to seven million and it contributed about RM263 billion to the nation's Gross National Income (GNI). Kuala Lumpur ranks 79th out of 140 cities in the Economist Intelligence Unit's survey on liveability.

Cities/towns/areas within Greater Kuala Lumpur

Selangor

Kepong

Batu

Wangsa Maju

Setiawangsa

Sentul

Setapak

Semarak

Kg. Baru

Datuk Keramat

Pandan

Pudu

Bdr. Tun Razak

Cheras

Connaught

Alam Damai

Sungai Besi

Bukit Jalil

Sri Petaling

Salak

Seputeh

Taman Desa

Brickfields

Lembah Pantai

Bangsar

Bkt. Damansara

Duta

Manjalara

Mont Kiara

Ibu Kota

Kuala Lumpur

TTDI

Segambut

Kuchai

Batu
Caves

class=notpageimage|

A map of Kuala Lumpur with the locations of the city centre and its suburbs.

State	Local authority	City/town/populated area
Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur	Kuala Lumpur City Hall	Kuala Lumpur CBD Maluri and Cheras Kepong Segambut (incl. Mont Kiara, TTDI, Damansara Heights) Sentul, Batu and Titiwangsa Setapak/Wangsa Maju Setiawangsa and Ampang Hilir Lembah Pantai, Mid Valley City and Bangsar Jalan Klang Lama and OUG Bandar Tasik Selatan and Salak South Sri Petaling Bukit Jalil and Sungai Besi
Selangor	Shah Alam City Council	Shah Alam Batu Tiga Sungai Buloh incl. Kwasa Damansara and Elmina Kota Kemuning Subang (Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport ) Setia Alam Putra Heights (west)
	Kajang Municipal Council	Kajang Semenyih Balakong (Cheras 11 Miles) Bandar Baru Bangi and Bangi Lama Beranang (Eco Majestic) Broga Hulu Langat town
	Subang Jaya City Council	Subang Jaya including USJ Sunway Pyramid Puchong and Bandar Kinrara Seri Kembangan Batu Tiga(partial)
	Klang Royal City Council	Klang Port Swettenham Pandamaran Johan Setia Kapar Kota Kemuning (partial) Meru Pulau Indah Pulau Ketam
	Petaling Jaya City Council	Petaling Jaya Kelana Jaya Ara Damansara Damansara incl. Bandar Utama Sungai Buloh incl. Kota Damansara and Bandar Sri Damansara
	Selayang Municipal Council	Selayang and Bandar Baru Selayang Gombak Batu Caves Rawang Kuang Batu Arang Kundang Kepong (partial) Genting Sempah
	Ampang Jaya Municipal Council	Ampang Pandan Indah Pandan Jaya Ulu Klang Melawati Klang Gates Dam
	Sepang Municipal Council	Kuala Lumpur International Airport Cyberjaya Salak Tinggi/Kota Warisan Dengkil Sepang town Sungai Pelek Tanjong Sepat
	Kuala Langat Municipal Council	Banting Teluk Panglima Garang Jugra Morib Bandar Saujana Putra Carey Island
	Kuala Selangor Municipal Council	Kuala Selangor incl. Bukit Malawati Tanjung Karang Puncak Alam Bukit Cherakah Ijok Jeram
	Hulu Selangor Municipal Council	Kuala Kubu Bharu Ampang Pechah Serendah Batang Kali Resorts World Genting (western 25%) Bukit Beruntung Kalumpang Hulu Bernam
Federal Territory of Putrajaya	Putrajaya Corporation	Putrajaya
Negeri Sembilan	Seremban City Council	Seremban Nilai Mantin Labu, Tiroi and Bandar Enstek Senawang and Sungai Gadut Rantau incl. Bandar Sri Sendayan Lenggeng
	Port Dickson Municipal Council	Port Dickson Lukut Linggi
Pahang	Bentong Municipal Council	Bentong Resorts World Genting (majority) Genting Sempah Karak Lurah Bilut
Perak	Tanjong Malim Municipal Council	Tanjong Malim (Ends in Proton City Interchange (Ladang Katoyang)

References

1. "Malaysia". Department of Statistics Malaysia . Retrieved 20 May 2020.
2. "Peta Selangor" . Retrieved 22 August 2016.
3. "Map of British Malaya including the straits settlements, federated malay States and Malay States not included in the federation 1919". University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Retrieved 24 July 2022.
4. "Portal Rasmi PDT Sepang Sejarah Daerah Sepang". www.selangor.gov.my. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
5. Shaharir, Syahrul Sazli (2021-02-01). "Pembangunan Bandar Baru Bangi". Cebisan Sejarah Bangi (in Malay). Retrieved 2023-10-12.
6. "Overview | shapadu". www.shapadu.com.my. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
7. "The Malaysia Digest". Archived from the original on 2011-03-09.
8. "Sendayan TechValley".
9. "IMAGE: Urban Hierarchy of Peninsular Malaysia-Conurbation regional planning" – via ResearchGate.
10. "Kawasan Pertumbuhan Utama Pemangkin Pembangunan Negara".