Ministry of Transport (Upper Myanmar) Deputy General Manager and Joint Feasibility Committee for Mandalay-Muse electric locomotive rail project secretary (1) Htay Hlaing told Mizzima that their work for an environment impact assessment was delayed by unrest and instability in the Muse-Hseni-Kutkai area.

“We have to consult with Environment Conservation Department for completion of this assessment work as the project area has disturbances and conflicts,” Htay Hlaing said.

For this project, survey and soil test work have been done in the period from 31 December 2018 to 10 May 2019 and currently Ever Green Tech Environmental services and Training Co. Ltd. are conducting environment impact assessment work.

Environment assessment works must be conducted 26 times and now it has been done 19 times so far. After completion of these assessments, the report must be submitted to the union government through the ministry concerned.

Ever Green Tech Environmental Services and Training Co. Ltd. said that they would complete their environment assessment works by the end of the coming November.

Consultant of Ever Green Tech Environmental Services and Training Co. Ltd. Kyaw Swar Tint said, “Our work involves making an assessment of the impact on the environment and local people from the implementation of this rail project. We are continuing our work. We are trying hard to complete our work and submit our report on environmental impact assessment by the end of next month.”

In this project design, the length of railroad will be 258 miles (414 Km) and it will have 124 bridges, 60 tunnels and 36 stations. The locomotive type will be electric locomotive that will run at a speed of 100 mph.