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New highway will cut travel time to Thailand
Published on Thursday, 31 January 2013 14:38
A road construction at Karen State
The new highway linking Yangon to border town in Karen State will be completed in April next year, when a new bridge and other infrastructure linking the towns to Thailand is scheduled to be completed, the engineer overseeing the project said.
The 10-metre wide highway will cut the travel time from Yangon to the towns bordering Thailand from 12 to seven hours, a spokesperson for the company building the highway said. The highway will be built to meet regional standards and allow the easy passage of trucks and other heavy vehicles, the spokesperson said.
He did not expect any delays, but said construction would be difficult in mountainous areas during the rainy season.
The Thai government is investing about US$38 million for construction or repair of border infrastructure linking Kawkareik and Myawady towns to Thailand. This includes a Friendship Bridge, repairs to existing roads and construction of new ones. The Thai government is also financing construction of the highway to Yangon.
Travel is slow in the area due to the poor condition of roads. It takes about three hours to drive from one of the border towns to the other, the spokesperson for the road construction company said. “After the new highway opens, the entire route from Yangon to Hpa-an to Kawkareik to Myawady will take only seven hours,” he said, adding that the highway will be part of a regional network linking Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and India.