Two markets along the Yangon Circular Railway will be relocated to eliminate public safety risks and to make way for upgrades to the rail network.
Preparations are being made to relocate the markets Thamine and Danyinkone stations to areas further away from the railroad, where they will not disrupt the flow of passengers.
“In the Danyinkone Station market, buyers and vendors are bustling, and passengers cannot get on and off the train easily,” Myanma Railways traffic manager Zaw Lwin told Eleven. “We are negotiating with the vendors to move to a new location.”
A new location for the Thamine Station market, where more than 300 vendors operate, has already been found. The new market will be built on a 31,500 square-foot plot owned by Myanma Railways.
Upgrades to the Circular Railway, announced in July, aim to reduce running and waiting times and allow more people to use trains as their primary mode of public transportation. They will be carried out with a US$206 million from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and are scheduled to be completed in 2020.
When the upgrades are completed, daily ridership is expected to rise from 73,000 to 263,000, and the time is takes to complete a full circuit is expected to be cut from three hours to two.
The relocation of the Thamine Station market is being carried out by Myanma Railways, while the Yangon Region government will handle to relocation of the Danyinkone Station market.
