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
