Read about the Revival of the Sentul Raya Project by YTL Land and Development
Skyscrapers towering over old shop lots and kopitiams, motorcyclists zipping alongside continental cars, and a family of cows grazing in a field located next to a major highway – these are the common sights of today’s township of Sentul. It is a vibrant town close to the heart of Kuala Lumpur which possesses both a rich industrial heritage and a sad, tainted history of gangsterism and poverty. These contrasting attributes of Sentul had greatly inspired its on-going Urban Renewal Project and the development of a new township called Sentul Raya, spearheaded by YTL Land and Development and its collaborators, Sentul Raya Sdn Bhd (“SRSB”), Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (“DBKL”), and most importantly, the optimistic Sentul residents themselves. The overall mission is to revive Sentul to align with a rapidly modernising country and to enrich the town’s colourful community.
The Capers and The Fennel, luxury apartments in Sentul East, have brought new life to Sentul and changed the skyline of Kuala Lumpur. Built adjacent to one another, they cut through the sky with their unique futuristic design. Just beside these remarkable high rise towers are D6 and D7, which are commercial buildings connected by an overhead bridge that forms the first part of Sentul Skywalk – a project that aims to promote connectivity and safety across the town. Two other residential properties, The Tamarind and Saffron, are part of the first phase of creating well-designed but affordable apartments to attract young urban professionals to settle in the area. The KTM Railway Village is one of several low-cost housing developments that will generate a balanced demographic growth for the town.
Over in Sentul West, The Maple stands proudly as the only luxury high-rise with private access to Sentul Park, which is a beautiful park and recreation area that spans 35-acres. Just a stone’s throw away within Sentul Park is a full-fledged performing arts centre housed in an award-winning adaptation of a heritage building known as the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (“KLPac”). The building was once a colonial railway depot and workshop that had been abandoned and left in disrepair. After extensive refurbishment and the addition of a modern steel and glass extension, it opened its doors to aspiring artists and lovers of the performing arts in 2005. Today, it is one of the most established performing arts centres in the country and hosts over 100 major events every year, including plays, musical performances, film screenings and educational workshops
It is transformational projects such as these that have changed the face of Sentul. Once considered an urban decay, it is now one of the most sought after residential locations in the city. However, building beautiful and affordable homes is only part of the town’s rejuvenation plan as YTL is also actively shaping its community, particularly the next generation, through a series of educational programmes. A partnership between SRSB, DBKL, the Ministry of Education and the state schools in Sentul has resulted in the successful launches of projects like “Bintang Cemerlang”, the Creative Learning and IT Centre (“CLiC”), English @ CLiC, and the MyCommunity Project competition. These initiatives serve as a catalyst for the town’s progress towards equal educational opportunities for children. From 2008 to 2013, the “Bintang Cemerlang” programme designed to transform Sentul schools into scholastic centres of excellence, impacted over 80,000 students and 4,000 teachers from 24 schools.
It reversed the decline of many poor performing Sentul schools by introducing holistic programmes that focused on academics, sports, the arts, and environmental awareness. One of its greatest milestones was helping several students from SJKT St. Joseph score straight A’s in the Primary School Assessment Examinations (or “UPSR”), making the school the top Tamil vernacular school in Kuala Lumpur. Following the success of the “Bintang Cemerlang” programme, SRSB collaborated with DBKL in 2014 to transform an underused library at the Mini Urban Transformation Centre in Sentul into CLiC – a learning centre accessible to all that is fully equipped with Chromebooks and YES 4G Internet. CLiC seeks to bridge the digital divide faced by underprivileged children and has created opportunities for 83 schools and 60,000 students from the town’s poorest families to have access to the latest educational and technological resources.
The immense popularity of the English, Art and IT programmes offered at CLiC inspired the launch of English @ CLiC, which is a comprehensive programme that helps students and teachers from Sentul schools improve their English proficiency with the use of technology. Since 2015, a total of 120 teachers from 84 schools have been extensively trained to improve their English skills using FrogAsia’s Virtual Learning Environment (Frog VLE). They were also encouraged to fully embrace the 21st-century classroom, where students are allowed more creative freedom, opportunities for critical thinking and so forth. Then there is the exciting MyCommunity Project competition, which serves as an educational and interactive project that challenges students to think out of the box to implement an idea inspired by one of the 17 United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals within their school and community. The grand prizes for the winning ideas consist of 2 Frog Classrooms, a visually stimulating learning environment that promotes 21st-century learning with the use of technology, specially designed by YTL Foundation.
The name Sentul is derived from the Santol tree, and its resoluteness in rising from its former notoriety and building itself up again resembles the enduring strength of the tree. While the town deeply celebrates its industrial roots, it also embraces its on-going growth towards modernity, social prosperity, and technological advancement. YTL Land and Development and its many collaborators have continuously pushed the envelope in transforming Sentul into a modern urban community that retains its heritage. Today, as we drive through the town and peer out of our car windows, we will see state-of-the-art developments beautifully surrounding the town and a strong sense of unity within the colourful Sentul community.
