Yangon residents urge road repairs
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Yangon residents want better public transit, more roads and repairs made to existing ones to reduce traffic jams, a survey of about 10,000 households in the metropolitan area found.
The survey will be used to draft a strategic urban development plan for Greater Yangon, officials told Eleven Media. It was conducted by the Yangon City Development Committee and Japan International Cooperation Agency.
More than 70 per cent of the households surveyed rely on buses to get to work and for other activities, an interim report on the strategic plan said.
About one-quarter of those surveyed also called for better public transport nation-wide, officials said.
Yangon is facing traffic jams for the first time due to a dramatic increase in the number of new vehicles over the past year, following a deep fall in import taxes. Other reasons for traffic congestion include roads that are too narrow or in disrepair, residents said in the survey.
Upgrading of major roads such as Bogyoke, Yekyaw, Yeytarshay and U Chit Maung is about 80-per-cent complete, officials said.
Until last year, most of the city’s taxis were barely functioning Japanese models from the 1960s and 1970s. They were known for rattling noises and emissions of thick smoke when working. These taxis have been replaced by Chinese-made Chery QQ compacts, primarily those painted in vivid shades of red, yellow and blue.
The former capital city Yangon is more crowded as Myanmar has opened the economy for foreign investors and visitors.
The number of tourists arriving through Yangon International Airport rose more than 50 per cent last year compared to 2011, the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism said. Nearly 555,000 travellers arrived through the country’s main gateway last year, compared with about 359,000 in 2011, it said.
Visitors were evenly divided between tour groups and those who made their own travel plans, the ministry said, adding that most were from Thailand, China, Japan, France and Germany.
More than one million tourists visited Myanmar last year, compared to 810,000 in 2011.
The number of business travellers also surged last year, from about 70,000 in 2011 to 114,000.
With tourist arrivals surging, new hotel zones are being built on the outskirts of Yangon, at Mount Popa in central Myanmar and at Inle Lake in the north. Myanmar has 782 registered hotels and guesthouses with more than 28,000 rooms.
Tourists, however, frequently complain that room prices are too high and facilities and services far below regional standards.
