Tapah Road

Tapah Road (pop. ~7,000) is a small town which is located near Tapah, in the state of Perak, in Malaysia. The population consists of 40% Muslim Malays, 30% Chinese, 20% Indians and a few indigenous.

History

The town was of greater importance in the last century because it has a railway station which is the second oldest in Malaysia. The station was constructed with a 30 km (19 mi) railway to Teluk Intan(Branch Line) in the 1880s. As the station is also linked to the Main railway line from Butterworth,Penang to Tanjung Pagar(Kepple Road Railway)Singapore, Tapah Road is considered as a major stop. This is because it is the gateway to Cameron Highlands, the cold highland resort which was popular to the colonists. The relative importance of both towns in terms of economic activities in the region became less as road vehicles gained popularity in the last three decades of the last century. Even the train service between Tapah Road and Teluk Intan has been terminated in 1991 and the railtrack is no longer in place. A new double-track railway line is now under construction from Singapore to Penang and thus the railway station has been renovated to suit the new tracks.

The town is on the road leading to Tapah and thus led to its name. This name has drawn some criticism from local Malay linguists because it has a colonial 'stain' on it. A number of towns in Perak also have this 'stain' such as Slim River, Port Weld (now Kuala Sepetang) and Teluk Anson (now Teluk Intan). Tapah Road maintained its name because the equivalent version in Malay ('Jalan Tapah') is also not suitable because it is not to be named after a road, but a town.

Economic activities

The town is now gaining significance because a large prison was built about 1 km (0.62 mi) from the town in 2001. The prison is the largest in Perak and a small township has been spawned near the prison to cater for the prison staff and visitors.

There are three primary schools and a secondary school (Sekolah Menengah Dato' Panglima Perang Kiri) in this town. There are two rows of shops leading to the railway station. An overhead bridge was built (completed in 2005) over the railway lines. There are large oil palm estates near the town leading to Teluk Intan. There also have two big Indian's Kuil and six small Kaliaman kuil in the estate. There are vegetable farms and rubber estates along the road to Tapah. There were a lot of tin mines 30 years ago but not one is in operation now. There was a plan to build a university in this area but it is not known if the project is still on since there is still no evidence of its construction yet.