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Roundup: Myanmar works for upgrading Yangon rail line

Xinhua, September 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

Myanmar is working for upgrading Yangon's circular rail line by introducing a foreign loan of 207 million U.S. dollars for the project as part of its Yangon Central Railway Station expansion project.

Provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the loan is to purchase trains which will enable to offer faster and more regular services of the Yangon circular rail line.

The project will halve the travel time when the upgradation is completed in 2021.

With about 130,000 passengers depending on rail transport in Yangon daily, the city circular trains are running about 200 rounds a day.

The rail transport authorities has also been planning privatization of the Yangon city circular train as part of its efforts to effectively run the rail transport business under the build, operate and transfer (BOT) system.

Tender process for Myanmar's Yangon Central Railway Station expansion project has been in progress with three developers having submitted the tender proposal to the Myanmar railways authorities to compete for the station's comprehensive development project.

The three unidentified developers are from nine domestic and foreign companies selected for implementing the project.

The Yangon Central Railway Station comprehensive development project, which covers 25.11 hectares of land, called for an investment of 2 billion to 2.5 billion U.S. dollars.

The project, which includes design-and-build work and is prioritized as in the form of joint venture with private enterprises, is expected to start later this year.

According to the Myanma Railways, the resettlement action plan and the conceptual plan have already been drawn and the first phase of the project deals with resettlement of railways staff families living in the railways quarters and relocation of factories of the railways in the project area.

Under a plan of massive transformation of the railway station into one of the city's most sparkling new projects, the Myanmar authorities were inviting ideas and expression of interest from local and international investors to undertake design-and-build work for the comprehensive development of the 130-year-old railway station in accordance with international rules and regulations.

In wake of paying around 40-45 billion Kyats ( 31.5 to 35.4 million U.S. dollars) annually in subsidy to the Myanmar Railways, the government called for developing the colonial-era-left station as a rail concerned business including high-rise buildings and hotels in accordance with international rules and regulations to enable reduction of the annual subsidy.

Moreover, Myanmar railway authorities has also invited local and foreign firms to bid for a project to develop another township station in west of Yangon into a transportation, retail and commercial hub after Pazundaung's in east of Yangon. Endi