The Yangon regional parliament has approved a controversial new town expansion project in southwestern Yangon after it had been suspended for almost a year.
Following review and debate, the regional parliament gave the go-ahead to the project last week. Authorities will now invite tenders for the new town development.
The development project, introduced in an abrupt manner by the regional parliament in August last year, was blamed for lacking transparency with regard to awarding the contract of the project and was suspended in September for review.
The new Yangon town project will be established on 4,745 hectares between Pun Hlaing river and Twante-Yangon Canal and between Hlaing river and Hlaingtharyar-Twante road.
The project represents one of the seven modern housing projects of the Greater Yangon Development Strategic Plan 2040, designed by the Yangon regional government and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The seven modern housing projects will be implemented on over 40,500 hectares of land on the outskirts of Yangon and will accommodate more than 10 million people.
Yangon Mayor U Hla Myint debated in the regional parliament that the long-term plan of the seven projects needs to be implemented assuring that the project will not contribute to financial instability in the country.
Some MPs seconded the plan calling for establishment of the new town to help local people and address the rising population in Yangon which has more than five million people and is experiencing annual increase of 2.6 percent.
Tenders are being changed to be invited transparently from private developers for the expansion project of the new Yangon town.
When the project was first announced, land prices in the planned new Yangon town area had skyrocketed. Sudden suspension of the project one month later had brought much impact on those who have bought the land at high prices.
The new Yangon town was originally planned on 12,150 hectares of land area which called for investment of $15.21 billion, 70 percent of which is targeted to be completed within three years.
The project includes affordable housing complexes with 20,000 apartments, a school with a seating capacity of 2,000, a home for the aged which can accommodate 2,000 aged people and five six-lane river crossing bridges.
