Difficulty securing funding could mean that an overhaul of the Yangon Circular railway may not be completed for five years.
The Minister for Rail Transport U Zeyar Aung, speaking to The Myanmar Times on June 5 before the opening of the World Economic Forum in Nay Pyi Taw, said that interest in funding the project has been extremely limited.
Who will fund this project? Only Japan and Korea have shown interest in upgrading the track together with other funds. The problem is securing funding, he said, adding that the type of loans granted to aid in the development of the project would also play a vital role in how and when it is completed.
According to U Zeyar Aung, part of the cost of a large-scale upgrade would be covered by developing some of the land that surrounds the track, but additional money would be needed. He did not say exactly how much.
A paper complied by The University of Tokyos Graduate School of Public Policy in March 2012 estimated the cost at around US$10 million per kilometer or $400m total.
The project is seen as a key to sustainable urban development in Yangon where traffic congestion has soared since the easing of automobile import laws. The railway could also help to ferry workers to industrial zones outside of the city, creating a beads on a necklace effect with factories lining the track, according to poverty adviser with UN-Habitat, Michael Slingsby.
Despite the importance being place on it by development agencies, it remains the Ministrys second priority behind the Yangon main line, which U Zeyar Aung described as the the artery of Myanmar and the countrys life line.
Minor improvements have been made over the past year to train, including the replacement of wood sleepers with precast concrete and upgrades to the rolling stock car. But these upgrades, designed to increase the speed on the train, have failed to work as intended due to the numerous railroad crossings that dot the track.
U Zeyar Aung admitted that the ineffectiveness of the measures, but said that the Ministry planned to rework the railroad crossing system.
Currently the track runs at about 17 kilometeres per hour, taking roughly three hours to complete its 45.9 kilometre route.
RANGOON Burma may implement an electronic system of paying for train travel in its commercial capital if talks between the state railway firm and a private company are successful.
State-owned Myanmar Railways is in talks with the military-owned iPay company over rolling out a pre-paid card system on circular railways in the former capital Rangoon, according to a Myanmar Railways official.
Chit Kyaw Myo, the deputy general manager of Myanmar Railways, told The Irrawaddy the company was holding discussions with IPay, which is a subsidiary of the military-owned Uni0n of Myanmar Economic Holdings.
This kind of payment system is currently used on buses and ships, so I dont think it will be very difficult to implement on trains, Chit Kyaw Myo said. We, however, still have to talk about monetary issues with them as we use our funds every day.
They will have to carry out the necessary building at different stations, he continued. We just cant start the system right away, but we are negotiating.
The iPay Company launched an electronic payment system with prepaid cards for public transport in Rangoon in 2012.
We already have the technology and are currently in discussions with [Myanmar Railways] to use it on circular trains, said Thant Sin, operation manager of iPay. We have done a field study about how ticketing works on trains and submitted our findings to [Myanmar Railways] together with our recommendations on how to install a new system.
He said fees for circular trains will remain the same and, if this system works, his company will work with the Ministry of Railway Transportation to gradually expand it to long-distance routes.
Tickets currently cost between 100 kyat (about US $0.11) and 200 kyat ($0.22).
I dont know if I can pay bus fees with a prepaid card, but I would like to use it on trains as I wont need to buy tickets hurriedly or in advance, said Khin Aye Mon, a female commuter in Rangoon.
In a recent survey of Rangoon residents, The Irrawaddy found that half of those who use buses and circular trains every day do not like the prepaid card system.
Rehabilitation contract for 640km Yangon-Mandalay railway link will be given to Japanese firms
Utpal Bhaskar
LiveMint First Published: Tue, Jun 11 2013. 12 09 AM IST
Nay Pyi Taw/Yangon: Japan has completed a feasibility study on the proposed $1.7 billion modernization of the Yangon-Mandalay railway linka major attempt towards developing Myanmars railway transport infrastructure.
The rehabilitation contract for the 640km link will be given to Japanese companies because the study was funded by a grant from Japan, said Thura U Thaung Lwin, deputy minister in Myanmars rail transportation ministry.
Japan is also expected to provide a loan to fund the project.
In another development, the Myanmar government plans to set up manufacturing facilities for diesel locomotives and rolling stock such as coaches and wagons in the country by 2015 with Chinas help.
The twin facilities will be operational within three years. The tender has been completed and the contract will be awarded to a Chinese company, U Thaung Lwin said in an interview. He didnt name the Chinese firm.
These facilities will require an investment of $100 million. While 90% of the investment will be covered through the Chinese loan, 10% will be contributed from Myanmars annual budget. The diesel engines will be manufactured in Nay Pyi Taw, the Myanmar capital, and the coaches and wagons will be built in Mandalay.
Myanmars attempt to improve its creaky infrastructure hold out the promise of lucrative contracts for foreign companies as governments such as Japan try to leverage their aid and loan programmes to step up their economic engagement with the South-East Asian economy.
According to a report by consulting firm McKinsey and Co., Myanmar needs $650 billion of investment by 2030 to support economic growth. Of this, $320 billion is required in infrastructure.
Myanmar has a railway network length of 4,000km of tracks, with 926 stations and a fleet of 436 locomotives. The state-run systems 412 trains lug 1,281 passenger coaches and 3,204 wagons.
Much of the railway network is old and in urgent need of modernization.
A planned Trans-Asian Railway link aims to connect the railway systems of 28 countries in Asia, and Europe.
There is also a plan to establish a rail link between India and Myanmar, which will join Jiribam, Assam in India with Kalay in Myanmar.
India is also a part of the road project that seeks to help establish connectivity from Moreh in India to Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar.
Transporting by rail instead of truck from Myanmar to Shanghai would reduce the cost to four times that of sea freight compared with ten times, said the McKinsey report.
Our estimates of freight costs from Chennai to Shanghai via Myanmar by ship and by overland routes consist of the following elements: sea shipment from Chennai to Yangon at a rate of $0.003 per km per tonne, and land transport from Yangon to Shanghai by way of the Muse/Ruili border crossing at a rate of $0.05 for trucking and $0.02 for rail, the report added.
Such connectivity will also help in the economic integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Trade between India and Asean was $76.3 billion in 2012-13 and is expected to increase to $100 billion by 2015.
In the initial period during the development of our country, the rail network will be developed within our country. Going ahead in future, when our economy is developed, we will link up to neighbouring countries such as India, China and Thailand, U Thaung Lwin said.
India has been involved in strengthening Myanmars railway infrastructure. Of a $500 million credit line extended to the Myanmar government by India, $155 million has been earmarked for developing railway infrastructure.
In a related development, a survey team from state-owned RITES Ltd has already conducted a feasibility study for the 250km link between India and Myanmar.
This will be followed by a detailed feasibility report that will indicate the investment required for this project. What I have heard is that on the India side the terrain is very mountainous, so first you have to search for an appropriate rail alignment, U Thaung Lwin said.
On our side, it is much easier as most of the area is plain. The projects execution depends on the funding for it. While we will put some investments from our side, the main funding will have to come from India, he added.
This comes in the backdrop of joint working groups set up by Myanmar and India to determine the technical and commercial feasibility of cross-border rail links and shipping links. State-owned Shipping Corporation of India Ltd has already completed a feasibility study on a liner between the two countries. According to the study, running this service would result in a yearly loss of Rs.28 crore.
c1943. Australians and British POWs work on the Burma-Thailand railway track. Many of this A Force group, were captured in Java.(Credit: Australian War Memorial)
A museum commemorating the WWII Death Railway has been shelved because of outstanding land issues, said managing director of Ta La Mon Travels and Tour Company which was originally scheduled to renovate the property.
Naing Maung Toe said that his firm already has permission to open the museum from the Mon State government, but that the project was constantly delayed because of a land dispute.
He added that his travel company had prepared well for this venture and that the museum had a list of donors who had items or paraphernalia they intended to present to the project.
Dr. Min Nwe Soe, the Mon State Minister of Planning and Economics, said that it is necessary to look what mutual benefits the Death Railway Museum would bring to the region, and that he proposed discussing the issue with civic groups. He added that the original plan was to rent the property on a 30-40 year lease under a BOT (Build-operate-transfer) agreement.
รถโดยสารขบวน 176 ทวาย-ย่างกุ้ง ตกรางที่ไจก์โถ่ ไม่มีผู้ได้รับบาดเจ็บ
The New Light of Myanmar 23 Jul 2013
Dawei-Yangon train carriage derails in Kyaikto
Kyaikto, 22 July A derailment happened to one carriage of No (176) Dawei-Yangon passenger down-train of Locomotive DF-1347 operated by U Maung Nyunt and U Thein Htay at railroad mile post
No (97/23) near Bridge No (49) in northern ward
in Kyaikto on 18 July. The railroad accident occurred shortly after the train left from Kyaikto railway station at about 9.10 am on that day.
Authorities said an upperclass coach of the train left the track and no one on board the train was injured. Rail services of all trains including the derailed train resumed after disruption of over three hours as railway men were putting back the carriage on the track. Kyemon-Kyaikto (IPRD)
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