Rai Maroah : Land prices around the Tavoy Deep Seaport Project Area in Tavoy Township, Tenasserim Division (southern Burma) has increased tenfold since the project, which will begin construction in 2011, started.
Wealthy Rangoon residents are still buying land even after the price increase, explained a resident who wished to buy land in the area. Yet, currently, it has been difficult to purchase land in the project area.
“Previously the land was 30,000 to 40,000 kyat per acre, but now the cost has risen to 400,000 – 500,000 kyat per acre. For some residents that have the wherewithal to buy the land, it has still been difficult to purchase. There is little land available near the seaport, and many wealthy residents from Rangoon are buying up the land.”
Land owners in Tavoy Township have subsequently made high profits from selling the land with the price increases.
One Tavoy resident explained that villages have been relocated in the project area, but residents do not feel taken advantage of because they have received money from land sales.
“There has been forced relocation, but the villagers aren’t greatly affected because the land cost has increased. The villagers are able to profit from land sales. There are only a few villages, with a small number of residents. Much of the area is covered by forest,” according to a source close to the project.
The Tavoy deep seaport zone includes 30 villages with Tavoyan, Mon, and Karen villagers, explained one source.
The Tavoy deep seaport project is located above Nebule village and Heinze Island, in the upper Maungmakan beach near Tavoy Town, Tenaserrim Division.
The project has cost around $8 billion U.S. and funded by the Ital-Thai Development and Burmese government, working as an industrial zone for both Thailand and Burma.
