Mitsubishi Corporation (MC), Japan’s largest trading company, has signed two contracts on 7th Dec which worth approximately 69 billion yen ($663 million) with Myanmar’s state railway company to deliver new units of rolling stock for two major transportation projects—the Yangon Circular Railway (YCR) and the Yangon-Mandalay Railway (YM).

The projects will be covered by an international yen loan agreement between the governments of Japan and Myanmar.

The first agreement is to deliver 66 railroad cars for use in the YCR project in Yangon. The second is to deliver 180 cars for the YM project, which will connect Myanmar’s two largest economic hubs via Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital.

The cars will be delivered to Myanmar in stages between 2023 and 2025, said the company.

The new cars will shorten travel time on the 46-km Yangon Circular Railway from about 170 minutes to 110 minutes, and on the 620-km Yangon-Mandalay Railway from about 15 hours to around eight hours.

The first phases of both the YCR and YM projects are expected to be completed in 2023, JICA said.

Source: The Irrawaddy