A Tender for private companies to build a multi-million-dollar suspension bridge connecting downtown Yangon with sleepy Dala township will be called “soon”, but only for Korean firms, the Ministry of Construction’s permanent secretary said.
U Kyaw Lin said a consulting company will be chosen this month to oversee the tender.
“The ministry is choosing a consultancy firm to handle the bids. We will only invite Korean companies because the bridge is being built with a loan from Korea,” he said.
Last November the two governments agreed that South Korea’s Economic Development Cooperation Fund would issue a US$137.8 million over 40 years at 0.01 percent interest to finance the bridge, which is estimated to cost around $168.2 million. Myanmar’s construction ministry will pay the rest.
Once a contractor has been chosen, work is likely to begin in 2017, U Kyaw Lin said.
The project broke ground in February. The four-lane bridge will be 1936 feet (590 metres) long, 160ft high and 823ft wide, and will link Phonegyi Street in Lanmadaw township to Bo Min Yaung Street in Dala.
Dala residents told to hand over their land to make way for the bridge were paid K130 million per acre, which was less than the market price, according to resident U Khin Maung Nyunt.
“The current price is more than K200 million per acre, but we didn’t object because we had no chance to negotiate,” he told The Myanmar Times earlier this year. “We must be thankful that the government didn’t just seize our land, as happened in the past. But I say truly, the compensation does not make up for the cost of removing us.”
When complete at the end of 2020, the bridge will pave the way for development, both in Dala and in other townships across the Yangon River including Twante, Kawhmu and Kungyangone. It will also feature a water pump line to distribute water from Yangon to Dala.
Source: The Myanmar Times