Better Railway System: First batch of DEMU Coaches Arrived Yangon

The first batch of Diesel-Electric Multiple Units (DEMU) coaches has arrived Yangon on Saturday.

The coaches were manufactured in Japan, and shipped to Myanmar's Thilawa Terminal under the Phase-1 of Yangon-Mandalay Railroad Upgrading Project. The new coaches will be handed over to Myanma Railway after conducting trial run and maintenance training to the staff for three months.

General Manager, Admin Division, Myanma Railways (Lower Myanmar), Aung Thu Lat said "This is the very first batch of DEMU train coaches under JICA ODA loan. The second batch is expected to arrive in November, the third batch in coming January and the fourth batch in March. The experts from Japan will conduct necessary tasks including test running of the coaches, training to the staff for maintenance for three months. After this period, the train coaches will be handed over to us."

Myanma Railways has upgraded the Yangon-Mandalay Rail Route, spending ODA loans of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) with Phase-1 and Phase-2.

Senior Representative, Japan International Cooperation Agency (Myanmar Office), Hajime Matsuoka said "I think today is very historical timing for Myanmar and Japan. This is one of the symbols of friendship between Myanmar and Japan. ..... I'm very impressed for this occasion. Also, I hope this loading stocks help to improve Myanmar people life and to facilitate transport development in Myanmar."

The first batch included 24 train coaches and it cost about 64 million US dollars. With these DEMU coaches, Yangon and Mandalay can be reached by about 8:20 hours which is now taking about 15 hours.