30 June
APAN has agreed to support Myanmar a ¥ 6.033 billion (US$ 53 million) grant to help modernize Mandalay Port and improvements are expected to begin in July, said Mandalay Re-gional Minister for Planning and Finance U Myat Thu.
The upgrades for the port will be executed by the Direc-torate of Water Resources and Improvement of River Systems (DWIR) under the Ministry of Transport and Communications with financial and technical as-sistance from the Japan Inter-national Cooperation Agency (JICA) under the guidance of the Union government. “The JICA submitted a proposal to the regional government to lease land plots to construct warehous-es for development of the port. The chief minister also pledged to lease land plots to be used in port improvement,” the region-al minister said. Under the pro-ject, a 300-meter road with three weighbridges, a container yard, jetty, cranes and warehouses will be developed.
The project site is located on the Mandalay-Sagaing circular road between Mahaaungmyay and Amarapura Townships. The aim of the project is to modern-ize Mandalay Port in Myanmar’s second largest city. The project is expected to greatly improve the efficiency of inland transpor tation and goods distribution by water in Myanmar by making it possible to mechanize 200,000 tons of cargo-handling per year out of 800,000 tons, as well as increasing the cargo-handling efficiency per hour by approxi-mately six times, shortening the ship mooring time by 90 percent or more and in other ways. In addition, it is one of the major goals under the National Trans-port Master Plan drafted with the help of JICA in 2014.
The Directorate of Water Resources and Improvement of River Systems under the Ministry of Transport and Com-munications will carry out river bank protection tasks along the Ayeyawady River in Mandalay Region. Ks. 5.3 billion have been earmarked for implementation of riverbank erosion prevention works in the Mandalay Region in the current fiscal year, according to a source from the DWIR. Ap-proximately Ks. 5.3 billion will be spent on construction of the retaining walls in Mandalay Re-gion to solve the problem with the riverbank erosion along the Ayeyawady River.
The river bank protection tasks will be undertaken in Amarapura, Madaya, Singu, Nganzun, Myingyan, TadaU and NyaungU Townships by spend-ing Ks. 5.3 billion and the whole project is expected to be fully completed by next month, said U Toe Aung Lin, a director from the department. “The erosion prevention project will begin when the river is at its lowest point. The planned projects will be implemented with the region-al government’s funds,” he said. The twenty two river bank pro-tection projects will be impleent-ed in the current fiscal year with the allotted funds from Mandalay Regional government.
The DWIR chose five ar-eas in Singu Township, four in Madaya, Ngazun and NyaungU Townships, one each in Mying-yan, Patheingyi and Amarapura Townships and two in Singaing Township totaling 22 sites in the region to build the retaining walls. Riverbank erosion prevention works and waterway improve-ments have been carried out in Singu, Madaya, and Myingyan Townships in Mandalay Region in the financial year 2018-2019 by using Ks. 5.2 billion allotted by the regional government. “The river bank protection task is beneficial to the local people because it can prevent the farmlands, homes and pagodas from river bank erosion,” the director explained.
The DWIR also focuses on not only river bank protection but also river bank stabilization. The DWIR will carry out the tasks in cooperation with local law-makers and people,” he added. Deforestation, soil degradation, illegal gold mining at watershed areas, climate change and rap-id rise in river water levels can cause river bank erosion.
By Kyaw Htike Soe
