When you think of Myanmar train travel, fast, polished carriages pumped with cool air do not usually come to mind.
But 7Day News has reported 10 new air-conditioned train cars made in South Korea will be up and running on the Mandalay-Myitkyina line by February 12, a date celebrated in Myanmar as Union Day.
The carriages are part of a 100-strong order in a deal signed by Myanma Railways and South Korean manufacturing firm Dawonsys on December 5, 2018.
A transport and communications ministry official told Eleven Myanmar last March that 40 are upper class South Korean cars and 60 are ordinary class cars built in central Myanmar.
A US$45 million loan from South Korea’s Economic Development Cooperation Fund is paying for the order, according to local media.
The purchase is part of a drive to modernise Myanmar’s colonial-era railway network, which currently offers bumpy trundles in worn carriages that may hold charm for the odd tourist.
But many people in the country would welcome safe trains speedier than the current average of current 30 to 40 kilometres per hour and would swap an open window for a more mechanical way of keeping cool.
Meanwhile, Japan is lending Myanmar millions of dollars to upgrade the Yangon circular railway and the Yangon-Mandalay railway.
A consortium of companies from Myanmar, Japan and Singapore has also been chosen to redevelop Yangon Central Railway station and the surrounding area over eight years at an estimated cost of US$2.5 billion.
