Foreign and Military Affairs

Chinese engines reinforce Myanmar's rail transport

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-23 20:39

YANGON - Myanmar is reinforcing its rail transportation with 30 Chinese engines recently presented to the rail transport department by China as friendship gifts, according to the department Saturday.

These locomotives are to be used not only in old railroads such as Yangon-Mandalay, Mandalay-Myitgyina, Mandalay-Lashio but also in new ones, the sources said.

Up to December 2009, altogether 243 passenger trains, 21 freight trains, 319 railway engines have been added to the country's rail transportation, it added.

According to official statistics, the length of Myanmar's railroads increased by two folds in the past 22 years, reaching 4, 800 kilometers (km) from 2,400 km in 1988.

Over the period, 73 million passengers and 3 million tons' commodities were rail-transported yearly, up from 36 million and more than 1 million tons respectively.

Meanwhile, 13 new railroads are being built in Myanmar in parallel passing over mountain ranges and extending from the east to the west, of which some completed sections have been opened for service.

Besides, the number of railway stations has also been added by 406, bringing the total to 893, up from 487 in the past.

Moreover, Myanmar has planned to construct a railroad that will link a deep-sea port, Kyaukphyu, in western Rakhine state with Kunming, southwest of China and the project is targeted to complete in 2015.