Rangoon Authorities to Build New Road, Ferry Gate to Help Students Commute
By Yen Saning 25 November 2014
RANGOON — Authorities in Rangoon’s Ahlone Township have offered to construct a new road and ferry gate in order to help students access a school in the area, a local administrator said on Tuesday.
Last week, several hundred students and their families from Oo Mya Ngar Sin Village in Kyi Myin Dine Township protested against the closing of a local road in Ahlone Township by military-owned conglomerate Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC). The road’s closing has added an hour to the commute of school students each morning.
A Kyi Mying Dine Township MP in the Rangoon Division parliament had negotiated with division authorities and was promised that a new ferry gate and a new road would be constructed soon, said Aung Shin, administrator of Seik Gyi Oo Ngar Mya Sin No 3. Quarter in Kyi Mying Dine Township.
“They will construct a new ferry gate and landing. Now, municipal authorities have started to pave the road near Thit Taw Road and it’s going to finish soon,” he said. “So, our side is satisfied and accepted it.”
MEC has also promised to arrange a school pick-up car for students from the new ferry gate to school later this year, Aung Shin said.
Mya Mya Thwe, a parent of one of the students, said the headmistress of the high school had told the parents that she would ensure that the students would be able to use the new road every morning and evening.
Hundreds of students commute to Ahlone by crossing the Irrawaddy River from the western river bank by ferry and then walking to their schools, but MEC’s plans to expand it factory premises had led to the closure of an access road that the students were using, forcing them to use another ferry landing and walk much further to reach their school.
The closed road is the primary point of entry into central Rangoon for the residents of Oo Mya Ngar Sin and nearby villages who travel to and from the city each day, including a total 350 students from the area attending No. 7 High School.
