The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will lend $197 million to the Myanmar government to upgrade the Yangon-Mandalay railroad. The interest rate for the loan is set at 0.01 percent and is repayable in 40 years with a 10-year postpone period. Meanwhile, the railroad upgrade project will be executed in 3
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will lend $197 million to the Myanmar government to upgrade the Yangon-Mandalay railroad.
The interest rate for the loan is set at 0.01 percent and is repayable in 40 years with a 10-year postpone period. Meanwhile, the railroad upgrade project will be executed in 3 parts: Yangon-Taungoo, Taungoo-Yamethin and Yamethin-Mandalay railroads. It will be completed by September 2022, according to the minister.
“Japanese experts are carrying out tests at the project areas. We will start to work on railroads between January and October, 2016. It will continue for the next 4 years until September 2020. The monitoring period for the project will be between 2020 and 2022,” Than Htay said.
The project involves soil maintenance along the railroad, replacing old rails, upgrading bridges, building overpasses, installing signal systems, and upgrading locomotives and cars. After the railroad upgrade is complete, passenger trains will run up to 100 km per hour on it, he added.
Currently, the journey by train from Yangon to Mandalay takes more than 15 hours.
The railroad's maximum payload will be raised from 17 tonnes to 20 tonnes, the same measure used in neighbouring countries.
Meanwhile, the first priority for the project will be the Yangon-Taungoo section. In nine main railway stations between Yangon and Taungoo, a computerized interlocking system will be installed. The Central Control System is to be installed at the Yangon Railway Station to monitor trains on the Yangon-Taungoo rail track, the minister said.