MUTIARA DAMANSARA

Developed by Mutiara Rini, a member of the Boustead Group, Mutiara Damansara is a major affluent township with freehold residential and commercial lots in Petaling Jaya. The name ‘Mutiara’ means ‘pearl’ in Malay, so it is no wonder that Mutiara Damansara is synonymous with high-end living for the rich. The bustling township is surrounded by Damansara Perdana, Bandar Utama, Kota Damansara, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, and Sunway Damansara.

Mutiara Damansara is home to The Curve Shopping Mall, IPC Shopping Centre, and the largest IKEA in the whole of Asia. The heavily planned township also boasts two landscaped parks called the ‘Mutiara Parks’ to serve the residents’ recreational needs, where pockets of land have been reserved for playgrounds, light exercise, and bicycle tracks linking each residential precincts to one another.

Residents living within Mutiara Damansara are pampered by the extensive range of public amenities which also include three office blocks, a police station, a mosque, and nearby schools. There is also a British Council teaching centre located in The Curve.

The ingress and egress roads of Mutiara Damansara is limited as there are only a handful of highways that commuters can use. At peak hours, usually in the evenings, traffic on the Damansara-Puchong Expressway can get very congested as many people will be driving home after work. The only other available option is to take the LRT train or a KTM Komuter to Kelana Jaya and catch a bus or a cab.

The exclusive high-end residency status in Mutiara Damansara becomes a magnet for crime. A favourite haunt for criminals to commit various crimes like break-ins, vehicle thefts, wayside robberies, and snatch thefts, the population living here are middle- to high-income earners and stolen belongings often include expensive items.

Two years ago, a girl was kidnapped in the parking lot of The Curve but she escaped thanks to her wits and quick thinking. The police are placing more emphasis on crime prevention in the Damansara area by increasing manpower and patrols, and stress that cooperation from the public is vital to reduce the crime rate.