Thu Rein, IMNA : Karen State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) will begin a private contract with a Three Pagoda Pass (TPP) company for highway construction on the TPP – Thanphyuzayart road this season, reported source close to a TPP businessmen.
“The contract is not yet official, but a TPP businessman said the Karen State (SPDC) will hire the Mya Than Company,” according to a businessman in TPP.
Mya Than Company has previously given whatever the Burmese authorities asked of it. The private contract,though, would be the first official contract in the history of working together [Burmese authorities and Mya Than Company].
Currently, Mya Than Company has already started building a new road from Metagu village to Taung Zun village, 15 kilometers away from each other [Metagu and Taung Zun village are placed on the road from Thanphyuzayart to TPP]. The company had to repair this road regardless of a contract with the Burmese authorities because the company conducts lead mining in the area and transports to TPP and then into Thailand. Metagu is 25 kilometers from TPP. The old road used to pass through a New Mon State Party (NMSP) checkpoint, explained a traveler.
A source close to the Burmese authorities said the old road from Metagu to Taung Zun was difficult for the Burmese soldiers to march upon so they are building a new one. The difficulty pertains to the supposed easy accessibility by guerilla groups to fire upon Burmese soldiers.
One businessman, who exports raw material to Thailand, explained that the government in Nay Pyi Taw [the capital] had said that TPP areas will be recognized as a “white” area if the election was finished peacefully and traders or companies at the borders would be given contracts respectively. The Burmese authorities have not officially announced a contract with Mya Than Company.
Construction took place on the the TPP – Thanphyuzayart road from 1996 after the cease-fire agreement between the NMSP and the Burmese government until 2009 and NMSP took wheel taxes from the vehicles.
TPP has six companies which produce lead and export to foreign countries through Thailand, these are Mya Than, Nawarat, Aung Myi, Shwe Htoo, Shwe Maun, and Thuzana Pwint.
