Yangon Municipal Body Invites Firms to Participate in Smart Parking Project

By San Yamin Aung 22 January 2019

YANGON—The Yangon City Development Committee, the municipal body, has invited expressions of interest from private companies to introduce a smart parking system in the busy downtown area.

According to a statement released on Tuesday, the system will be introduced on roads in Kyauktada, Pabedan, Latha, Lanmadaw, Botahtaung and Pazundaung townships. The townships comprise the city’s central business district, where parking problems are most severe.

Local companies and joint ventures between local and foreign companies are asked to submit expressions of interest from Jan. 28 until 3 p.m. on Feb. 27.

A smart parking system featuring automated payment technology is already up and running in a few townships in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-biggest city.

Amid complaints from local residents and lawmakers about illegal parking and limited parking spaces—one of the major causes of traffic congestion in Yangon—the regional government last year announced a plan to develop a modern parking system.

Union Deputy Transport and Communications Minister U Kyaw Myo said in Parliament on Nov. 30 that the Yangon regional government was widening roads to accommodate parking spaces, and preparing to invite private companies to introduce the smart parking system. He was replying to a lawmaker’s question about what plans the government had to tackle Yangon’s traffic and parking problems.

He said that under a new policy, new buildings would be required to have adequate parking space, adding that the government had a long-term plan to reduce private car usage by improving public transportation.

The government lifted restrictions on car imports in October 2011. As a result, the number of vehicles plying Yangon’s previously sleepy streets rocketed from 160,000 in September 2011 to more than 530,000 by October 2018, according to the deputy minister.