Bentong District

History

According to an old story, Bentong was previously known as Kapong. It was changed from Kapong to Bentong before World War I. In earlier times, the center of Bentong was around the market area, at the meeting point of the rivers Repas and Perting.

The most important transportation way at that time was the rivers by using perahu (small boats). The jetty was situated in front of current rest house (near current Bentong Police Station).

Bentong became a focal point when tin ore was discovered in the two main rivers, Repas and Perting. Tin developers constructed ‘ban’ to extract more ore, hence more profits. The practice became a talking matter to the people outside Bentong, who referred to it as the story of ‘ban untung’ (the Profitable Ban). ‘Ban Untung’ became more well-known than Kapong that later people began to call it Ban Untung. From the name ‘Ban Untung’ was what the name for the district of Bentong derived from.

From other story, according to Pak Zek (Budayawan Dato’ Haji Zakaria bin Hitam), the name Bentong originated from ‘Bapong’ (meaning float). Bentong was once used as a fort by Dato’ Bahaman. The British army sent over the Gurkhas mercenary to defeat Dato’ Bahaman to take over the area. However, a number of the Gurkhas were killed after they were ambushed by Dato’ Bahaman’s men. Their bodies were thrown into the river and floated in the water. Following the incident, the site was known as Bapong, and later known as Bentong. The exact date of the name change was on 31 August 1957.

Profile

Bentong is both a town and a district situated in the west side of Pahang Darul Makmur, Malaysia. In the beginning, Bentong subdistrict was under the administration of district of Raub. The administration was separated in 1919 due to the large size of the district of Raub. The district covers an area of 183,112.35 hectares. It is located northeast of Kuala Lumpur, just across the main mountain range, Titiwangsa Mountains. The original main street going into Bentong town has been modified to a dual carriageway. However, the part of the road which leads to Raub and Kuala Lipis had been upgraded.

As of 2002, Bentong has a population of 101,533 people. Bentong is administered by Bentong Municipal Council and is one of the fastest growing towns in Pahang. It is similar in size to Raub. Bentong has many light and medium industries, including timber factories, food industries and electronic components assembly factory. It also has one multinational copper wire factory which is the biggest in the country.

Administration

Bentong District is divided into 3 mukims which are:

Other than modern housing area, there are 55 traditional villages, 8 FELDA villages, 15 newer villages, and 14 native villages.

Infrastructure

About 98% of Bentong district's water supply come from PAIP (Pengurusan Air Pahang Berhad / Pahang Water Management), in which daily water production for Bentong district totalled 4.5 litres per gallon per day while the local residents use an estimated 8.7 thousand gallons per day. Most places in the district have access to electricity, having 4 main electricity transformers with combined capacities up to 90 megavolt-amperes. TM (Telekom Malaysia) provides Bentong district residents with 6,207 units of household telephones, 1,092 units of business premises telephones and 125 unit of public phones.

Transport

In general, Bentong district's paved roads totalled 837.26 km, comprising 311.22 km of federal roads, 224.51 km of state roads, 124.05 km of urban roads, and 177.48 km of FELDA roads.

Three major routes - 8, E8 and 68 converge at Bentong. Bentong is the eastern end of the old Gombak-Bentong road (route ). Highway begins in Bentong and goes up all the way to Kota Bharu in Kelantan. The Karak Highway, part of the East Coast Expressway is the main link to Kuala Lumpur as well as the state capital Kuantan.

Motorists from Negeri Sembilan and Malacca that wish to enter Pahang while bypassing the Klang Valley will usually opt for highway which interchanges with the East Coast Expressway in Karak in the eastern part of Bentong constituency.

In terms of public transportation, Bentong is not served by the KTM rail network. There though are buses serving downtown Bentong (through Hentian Raya Bentong) as well as Genting Highlands (which is part of Bentong constituency).

Downtown Bentong

Genting Highlands

Education

There are 49 primary schools, which include national schools, Chinese-medium schools and Indian-medium schools, in Bentong district, with overall 12,272 students and 869 teachers. As for secondary schools, there are 14 of them including vocational and technical schools, with overall 9,901 students and 755 teachers. There are also four government universities and a private university.

Services

Bentong District Hospital, now a Minor Specialist Hospital, is located in the town of Bentong and houses 152 beds. There are 22 health clinics including 19 rural clinics for health promotion and disease prevention. There are 2 government dental clinics, 22 private GP clinics and 3 private dental clinics.

There are also seven police stations and nine police hubs in the district, with a manpower of 355 policemen, and three fire stations with 111 personnel.

Federal Parliament and State Assembly seats

Bentong district representative in the Federal Parliament (Dewan Rakyat)

List of Bentong district representatives in the State Legislative Assembly (Dewan Undangan Negeri)

Subdistricts

Bentong has 3 subdistricts:

Sister cities