27 October
RESPONSIBLE officials at the present were preparing to face problems that can arise in the future. Replacing of old commuter buses with new one, upgrading railways to ensure speedy transportation by train, buying new high speed railways, preparing for establishment of a circuit road around Yangon, expanding the city area as well as utilising not only roads and rails but also the rivers and creeks around the city are some of such preparations.
Invitations were made to experienced international investors in an attempt to make Yangon an international level modern city. Economically strategic places where huge numbers of people can live and work were being developed due to availability of high technology construction methods and huge amount of investment.
High end city in a bay
A high-end housing project complete with a yacht jetty is coming up near the con-fluence of Bago River, Yangon River and Pazundaung Creek. As its location on Shukhinthar (View Point) Road in Thakayta Township, Yangon, was just like in a bay area, the high-end housing project was aptly named Emerald Bay Eco Smart City.
The project consisting of 6,000 apartments together with a yacht jetty is on 27 acres of land. Eleven 32-storey apartment buildings will be constructed on 17 acres of land. As a first stage, five were constructed and will be completed in 2022. In the second stage six more will be constructed and the project period will be about five and half years.
The buildings will be constructed in a bored-pile method and that could withstand magnitude 8 earthquakes. Construction started six months ago and the first stage was 25 percent completed.
Five Star services
Public places such as shopping centres, cinemas, swimming pools, Sky Garden, a park beside the river bank and play grounds will be included as well as a jetty where yachts and speedboats can dock. The entire area will be covered with a public address (PA) system and will have a parking space with hydraulic lifts for more than 7,200 vehicles. A Five Star services will be provided.
The yacht and speedboat jetty will soon be constructed and the jetty will also accommodate Yangon Water Bus allowing an option of waterway transport for the public.
“We will soon start the construction of the jetty where many yachts and speedboats can berth. The main point is implementing a small port” said Ko Ti Ti, the head of the Emerald Bay Urban Planning Project.
The Emerald Bay Eco Smart City is a joint investment of Tat Lan Group of Myanmar and Singapore’s Golden Paragon and the total investment was reported to be US$ 800 million.
Construction business dependant on the housing and land market was once booming but it had been in decline lately. After the enactment of Condominium Law in December 2018 that allows foreign ownership of apartments, foreign investors were expecting a turn-around in the construction business.
Singapore Golden Paragon Investment Pte., Ltd in-vestment director Dylan Wang said, “the construction business was in a decline recently but it will be for a certain ex-tent only. It will turn-around and rise again. Yangon had a population of 7 million out of which there were a sizable number who want to live in a high-tech and high-end environment. Our condominiums will meet the requirement of such people and that was why there’ll be a market for it.”
Requirement for changes
According to international organizations and market researchers, Myanmar was heading toward growth on one hand with a rising number of Myanmar working abroad who’ll require an environment that was compatible to the one they had worked and lived abroad on the other hand. Adding to this scenario the need to reconstruct the old Yangon city, new buildings are blanks that need to be filled in Yangon. That blank is being filled by Emerald Bay Eco Smart City.
By Shin Naw (Translated by Handytips)
