Myanmar’s Dawei to Thailand’s Kanchanaburi road construction expected to start soon
4 September 2019
An invitation to tender for the project to build the two-lane Dawei – Kanchanaburi road will be issued soon, says an official for the Dawei Special Economic Zone Management Committee.
“As the road project is a major component of the special economic zone (SEZ), we hope to start work on its construction as soon as possible,” said Dawei Special Economic Zone Management Committee Secretary U Tint Tun Naing.
An eight-month study on the possible impacts of the road project has already been carried out and its results made public. The project will be implemented as soon as possible after an agreement for a loan is signed with Thailand, U Tint Tun Naing said.
He said that the project involves the upgrading of an existing dirt road and that the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Assembly of the Union) has approved the acceptance of the loan for the project which Thailand has agreed to provide, adding that the agreement for the loan is expected to be signed soon.
The loan will be for 4.5 billion baht (K220.6 billion) over a 30-year period with an interest rate of 0.1 percent and interest-free for the first 10 years.
‘The road project is a major component of the Dawei Special Economic Zone.’ – U Tint Tun Naing, Dawei SEZ Management Committee
While the amount of the loan has been agreed, the figure may change according to the needs of the project, U Tint Tun Naing said, adding that the Ministry of Construction will oversee the project. According to the Ministry of Commerce, the hope is that the Dawei Special Economic Zone project, can be completed in three years.
Although an agreement was signed with Thai construction company Italian-Thai Development PLC to build the initial phase of the Dawei SEZ in 2008, work was suspended in 2013 due to dissatisfaction over the Thai company’s performance.
In 2015, another tender was invited to the resume the project. The tender was again won by Italian-Thai, although this time around the scale of the project was reduced.
“We instructed them to implement it quickly as the project would be beneficial for many people and the country,” said U Tint Tun Naing.
Work on the SEZ, which is expected to feature nine zones, is now focused on building out infrastructure such as roads , port facilities, and power first. – Translated
Source: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/dawei-kanchanaburi-road-construction-expected-start-soon.html
