Batu Kawa


Batu Kawah is a modern city township area that located nearby Kuching City in Kuching Division, state of Sarawak in Malaysia. This city township area is administratively under the Padawan Municipal Council. The Pan Borneo Highway passing through the area links Kuching City with Bau, Lundu and Sematan further west. This place is truly known to have many hornet nests and pineapple plantation in the past.

Etymology

Batu Kawah can also be referred as Batu Kawa, a corrupted form of spelling. The name of Batu Kawah is derived from the Malay words which "Batu" means stone and "Kawah" means crater which refers to a type wok used to cook rice. Oftentimes, people misspell Batu Kawah as Batu Kawa. Kawa has no meaning in the Malay language and is a corrupted spelling. Sources say that Batu Kawah is named with reference to a bunch of wok shape stone beside Batu Kawah River.

Economic activities

According to the survey by Padawan Municipal Council, Batu Kawah is mostly active in retail & wholesale business, financial & monetary, Sarawak digital economy sector, online business, education, healthcare, social and welfare activities, sports, leisure & event activities, architectural engineering, and also agrotechnology.

Governance

Batu Kawa forms one of the Sarawak state assembly district . During the Sarawak state election in 2011, DAP candidate; Christina Chiew Wang See won the seat against BN candidate Tan Joo Phoi.
In 2021 Sarawak state election, GPS candidate Sim Kui Hian won the seat against DAP candidate Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen with total 7,827 votes.

Demographics

As of 2025, Batu Kawah has a population of 108,934 people.

Geography

Batu Kawah New Township

Batu Kawah New Township, affectionately called "MJC" by Kuchingites, is a permanent modern garden city township development in Batu Kawah which provides the comfort and convenience to work, live, shop and play.
Batu Kawah New Township is a 275-acres integrated self-contained township planned with a whole array of modern facilities and amenities for your comfort. This city township officially owned by Mudajaya Group Berhad. Existing public amenities such as RHB Bank, restaurants, pharmacies, bus and taxi stand, police station, post office, 24-hour security assistance center, MJC Community Park, MJC Town Square, MJC Bazaar Square, public toilet, and public phone booths that provide convenience, recreation and security assistance to all the residents within this township.
Apart from that, Batu Kawah New Township also include other facilities such as SJK Chung Hua Sungai Tapang Hilir, SkyVilla Residences, Papillon Street Mall, and many more.

Pines Square City, Batu Kawah

Pines Square City, also known widely as "Pines Square" by many people in Kuching, is a latest modern city township in Batu Kawah and also claimed to be newest development metropolitan city project after Batu Kawah New Township.
This 380-acres Pines Square City originally owned by Lee Onn Development Sdn. Bhd. and Exal Malaysia Sdn Bhd, which is contains eight different newest development areas, namely as Pines Square Commercial Center, Pines Residence, SÓL Estate Kuching, Abbertton Avenue, SP Lodge Batu Kawah , KENSHO Townhouse, and a newest commercial city complex project Pines Square Parade, which is also includes a new mall building Pines Mall , a new restaurant building, modern residential apartments, a new community market, a new public service area, and a new modern administrative office complex that currently in construction.

Future developments in Batu Kawah

will have more latest mega development project within five to seven years from now. This latest development projects including a new Second Batu Kawah Bridge that connects between Jalan Stephen Yong and Moyan Junction.
Meanwhile in flood disaster prevention management, Padawan Municipal Council and Sarawak Government agreed to built the Sarawak River Bypass as the ultimate long-term flood mitigation project solution to protect riverside communities in Batu Kawah and beyond from recurring floods exacerbated by climate change. This project is a new additional long-term solution under Phase 2 of the Kuching City Flood Mitigation Plan.
Batu Kawah also ready to build the newest financial & business hub complex that located in a new land area between Moyan and Sungai Pinang area. This mega project is fully inspired from Istanbul Financial Center (IFC) in Istanbul, Turkey. This project also boosts more investors and local entrepreneurs to come and carry out business activities comprehensively in this hub complex.
And finally Batu Kawah also set the huge major transformation to build a new water theme park, expansive park & recreation areas, and a new modern shopping complex. The location of this large-scale development project is located at the old TM SP Stapok area in Jalan Stephen Yong, Kuching. At the same time, Batu Kawah will set to become "mini Subang Jaya" by the year 2030.

Transportation

Batu Kawah area can be reached by two main roads named Jalan Batu Kawah-Tondong and also Jalan Batu Kawah- Matang. Portion of Jalan Batu Kawah-Tondong separated by Sarawak River is linked with Jambatan Datuk Chong Kiun Kong. , it has been upgraded to dual carriage bridge under RM16 million budget to ease the traffic congestion along Jalan Batu Kawa-Tondong.
In the near future, there are plans to run an ART line through Batu Kawah with the Yellow Line of the Kuching Urban Transportation System, although this will start after Phase 1 of the system has been completed.

Other utilities

Small residential area

There are 12 small residential areas inside Batu Kawah :

Pekan Batu Kawa 、Stapok 、Sin San Tu 、Moyan 、Kim Choo Sing 、Luo Zhi Gan 、Xia Sha Long（下沙垄）、Sungai Tapang 、Rantau Panjang 、Sejijak 、Sungai Tengah, and Pangkalan Baru.

Education

Because of population rapidly increase in Batu Kawah, there's a need to establishing schools for education, mostly primary and secondary schools. For example, SJK Chung Hua Sungai Tapang Hilir, Sekolah Kebangsaan Garland, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Jalan Arang, and Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Batu Kawah.
There is only around 10 primary Chinese schools have been established during earlier day and have remained to serve the peoples till present.
Sunny Hill School is the only private school that located at 3rd Mile, Batu Kawah.
Cyberjaya College Kuching is the only college campus in Batu Kawah, and there are no universities in the Batu Kawah area.

Place of worship

Currently there are 12 place of worship that are available in Batu Kawah area :
  • Masjid Darul Ibadah, Jalan Stapok Utama, Batu Kawah
  • Surau Darul Sa'adah, Desa Wira, Batu Kawah
  • Masjid Darul Muttaqin, Rantau Panjang, Batu Kawah
  • St. Mark's Catholic Church, Batu Kawah
  • St. Basil Church, Batu Kawah
  • Zhu En Methodist Church, Batu Kawah
  • Seventh Day Adventist Church, Jalan Stapok Selatan, Batu Kawah
  • Kuching Seventh Day Adventist Church, 3rd Mile, Sunny Hill Garden, Batu Kawah
  • International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Jalan Ketitir, Batu Kawah
  • Kuching Dhamma Vijaya Buddhist Centre, Jalan Kong Ping, Batu Kawah
  • Guang Loong Temple, Batu Kawah Bazaar, Batu Kawah
  • Wat Somdet Sangkharat Sukkhaithuen, Jalan Stephen Yong, Batu Kawah