Bandar Utama

Bandar Utama Damansara is an affluent residential township located within the Damansara subdivision of the Petaling District, Selangor, Malaysia. It is a residential suburb and home to the popular 1 Utama Shopping Centre. Bandar Utama Damansara, together with neighbouring Kampung Sungai Kayu Ara, are within the section PJU6 of Petaling Jaya.

As of 2004 it is estimated that there are 59,040 people residing in Bandar Utama Damansara. The primary residents appear to be Chinese followed by Indian and Malay. However, there were nearby squatter settlements of illegal immigrants in the neighbouring Kayu Ara village which is enclosed by Bandar Utama Damansara and Damansara Utama. They have now mostly been relocated to nearby low-cost flats and their squatter houses demolished to make way for legal developments.

Until 1991, the Bandar Utama Damansara area was originally consisted of palm oil estates with a population fewer than 100 people. Development of Bandar Utama Damansara began in the early 1990s under the company named See Hoy Chan Holdings Sdn. Bhd., and an attempt to modernise the area was made, with the opening of Sri Pentas, TV3's broadcast centre was officially opened on 22 October 1996, as well as the 1 Utama Shopping Centre, which became increasingly well known after the Jaya Jusco chain of department stores, presently known as AEON, its Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, Kuala Lumpur outlet to Bandar Utama in 1995.

With the opening of several new schools in 1997 and 1998, as well as the establishment of Kolej Bandar Utama, a tertiary institution, Bandar Utama Damansara continued to grow. In 2004, additional residential precincts of BU7, BU10 and BU6 (comprising 2½-storey houses) were completed. These are newer sections of Bandar Utama compared to the older sections, BU1 until BU4, which were completed in phases beginning from 1991 until 1996.

Bandar Utama Damansara is roughly 1000 acres (4 km²) in size, and is divided into 12 sections ranging from BU1 to BU12. These sections are served by roads, e.g. Jalan BU2/5 where "Jalan" is a Malay word meaning road, BU2 is the section and 5 is the road number. Houses on one side of the road have even numbers, and the other side odd numbers, so one side of a road will consist of houses with numbers 2, 4, 6, 8 and so forth while the opposite will have houses numbered 1, 3, 5, 7 and so on.

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