Ye Township in Mon State will not get connected to the national power grid this financial year said the Mon State Electric Power and Industry Minister U Min Htin Aung Han at a press conference.
Ye Township residents want to be connected to the national power grid so that they can buy electricity at government prices because at present they pay some of the highest prices in Burma for electricity.
U Min Htin Aung Han has only just been appointed as the Mon State Electric Power and Industry Minister and he has yet to receive all the budgets from the 2015 to 2016 financial year, though he already knows that there will be insufficient money in this year’s budget to extend the national grid to Ye.
Despite this, surveys are being carried out to see what has to be done to connect Ye to the national grid and work out how much it will cost.
U Min Htin Aung Han said: “We plan to connect electricity up to Tenasserim Region. It will be on a nation-wide scale, but we still don’t know how much budget has been allocated for this year. We will carry out tests, measurements, and surveys for now. If there are rubber plantations, we need to clear them away first. After doing that, the budget will be given for connecting the power lines. We don’t know how much it will cost at the moment.”
At present the national power grid in Mon State only reaches to Thanbyuzayat Township about 40 miles north of Ye Township. The plan is to run power from Thanbyuzayat to Ye and onto the border with Tenasserim Region to the south of Mon State.
Since 2008 if Ye residents have wanted electricity their only option has been to buy it from the Mya Thu Ra Electricity Corporation at 550 kyats a unit. Once Ye is on the grid they will be able to buy electricity from the government for 35 to 50 kyats a unit.
The Mon State parliament member for Ye Township Constituency Number 2, U Chit Tin said: “The public wants electricity. We have discussed this issue in the parliament. The Parliament Speaker and Deputy Speaker have recorded this.”
According to the Electric Power and Industry Ministry, a power plant owned by Myanmar Lighting Company in Mawlamyine has been producing excess power, so as soon as Ye Township is connected to the grid it will be able to have power.
Translated by Thida Linn
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
