YANGON — Companies shortlisted for a contract to build an elevated expressway in Yangon aimed at alleviating the city’s traffic woes will be named by the end of the month, the Construction Ministry said Thursday.
A total of 12 local and international companies submitted prequalification applications between early September and Tuesday to develop Phase 1 of the project. They include two Chinese-Myanmar consortiums, a Thai-Japanese-Myanmar consortium, a Thai-Chinese consortium, four companies from China and one each from France, Korea, the Philippines and Japan.
U Kyi Zaw Myint, a deputy director-general at the Ministry of Construction, said some of the 53 companies that expressed interest in the project formed consortiums to submit applications together.
He said the ministry would announce the applicants who meet its qualification criteria later this month. The shortlisted companies will then get to submit proper project proposals.
The planned four-lane ring road will connect downtown Yangon, Yangon Port, Yangon International Airport, the Mingaladon Industrial Zone and the Yangon-Mandalay Highway.
The project will be implemented through a public-private partnership and is expected to spur economic development by improving connectivity across Yangon.
U Kyi Zaw Myint said Phase I would connect Dawbon Bridge, Pazundaung Township, the Mingaladon Industrial Zone and Yangon International Airport.
President U Win Myint has formed a steering committee to oversee the development of the expressway including Yangon’s chief minister and deputy construction minister and the Union ministers for construction, transport and communication, planning and finance, and electricity and energy.
The International Finance Corporation, the private lending arm of the World Bank Group, has been appointed the project’s exclusive lead adviser.
The winning bid will be announced by June 2019 and construction would take about two-and-a-half years, U Kyi Zaw Myint said.