My Town : Seremban

Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia.

Seremban Development

This city was developed since 1870 due to mining activity that attracted the Arab, Chinese and Malay to this area. The city development was well arranged by the city planner (British colonial and todays local authority). Previously, people used sampan, and cart as the option of transportation in Sungai Ujong area (Seremban). Nowaday intense developement can be seen since year 2005 where we can observe many projects have come to Seremban especially landscaping development that give Seremban with a new face. The Seremban Lake Garden has become more beutiful and more trees have been planted around the city.

As we can observe that Seremban is centered in term of city arrangement where we can see many row of shops were built in many layers from one to the others. This arrangement subjected to the old Seremban town. This town has become denser and surrounded by the residential area that blocked the town developement from expanding outward from the town center.

As the government realize that the old town cannot afford more new development, new suburban area or satelite city is developed by the local authority to support the Seremban development. New well arranged sub-urban city has been built like Senawang, Seremban 2, and Seremban 3 that transfered the current development from the old town of Seremban to this area.

Public Transport

Development come with the expansion of transportation system. As the Keretapi Tanah Melayu introduced the Komuter services from Seremban to Kuala Lumpur, people has more alternative to travel from Seremban to Kuala Lumpur and other city outside Negeri Sembilan. It give more job opportunity for the Seremban citizens to work in Klang Valley while at the same time live in Seremban. The railway station is very strategic because located near Terminal One bus station and both station is connected with shaded padestrian walkway and an underpass. This station also located in front of a shopping mall and the state post office.

Beside rail system, bus system is another alternative to travel in Seremban. We can see now Terminal One, has become the bus terminal for local bus transit (within Negeri Sembilan) while the local authority has transfered the intercity bus services to Terminal 2 to give comfortable to the user. Intermediate bus is provided to connect between both terminal which located not more than 500 meter to each others. Seremban - Kuala Lumpur bus services is a good alternative for traveller who come from Kuala Lumpur to visit Seremban. You can take LRT from KL Sentral to Pasar Seni and walk for about 50 meters from the LRT station to reach the Seremban-Kuala Lumpur bus hub. It is much more easier than travel by Komuter from Kuala Lumpur to Seremban because many people in Klang Valley choose Komuter as the main mode of trasportation. Usually train coming from Kuala Lumpur will be congested with people. Meanwhile, if you travel from Seremban to Kuala Lumpur, there are plenty of seat and it is much comfortable.

Road

The road development increses rapidly in Seremban especially when the Government approved the construction of Seremban Ring Road. After the construction of Seremban Ring Road, I observed that the objective to reduce traffic congestion give a very minimum impact especially in Jalan Dato' Muda Linggi near Seremban Center Point. There still need of police traffic to catter the congestion problem, but the traffic condition is much better than before. Personally I can say that the construction of Seremban Ring Road actually has give more opportunity for Seremban development in connecting sub-urban area with the city center.

New Project

The latest project that come to Seremban is the expansion of Komuter route from Seremban to Sungai Gadut that give a new alternative to the users especially in Senawang to travel to Seremban. The construction is alligned with the rapid development that can be seen in Senawang area. Beside that a new highway connecting Seremban to Kajang is in way toward completion. This highway called LEKAS not just connecting Seremban to Kajang, but it also provide short cut for those who travel from Paroi to Seremban town. People can avoid traffic congestion on the way to the Seremban town by using this highway. Beside that a new road which is nearly completed is the Bukit Putus Highway that connect Kuala Pilah to Seremban, give more comfortable to the road user, replacing the old road which becoming congested.

Improvement

For improvement proposal, I would like to suggest the local authority to provide Park and Ride hub in certain area in Seremban to promote public transportation. As I see, the opportunity of public transportation (especially bus) in this city is very high, so why not the local authority grab this opportunity to improve the system. By building a park and ride hub, the user just park their car in an area like in Stadium Paroi and use bus to travel to the town. Frequent bus service also needed to catter the congested bus especially in peak hour (morning, afternoon).

Promoting public transportation in Seremban is needed to create a livable city which is one of the main objective in any city in the world. By using public transportation and the improvement of padestrian facilities, Seremban can move one step foward in urban development planning align with other city like Melbourne in Australia. Inter-modal activity that promote the user to use more than one mode of transportation is a solution for congestion in the city. But, the service should be good and adequate to meet the users demand.

As a town that located near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), it is a good opportunity for the local government to improve transportation system in order to attract the tourist to come to this city. This town can give another option for the investor to invest and put new business opportunity as so many facilities and transportation link available.

And as the citizen of Seremban, I am very happy and proud to see the development in Seremban, but at the same time hoping that the local authority to improve the existing facilities and maintain it to make it more efficient. The clenlines of the city should be maintain and put more trees around the city to create a peaceful surounding.