Mizzima

Costs for travelling between Myawaddy and Kawkareik have risen since bad weather caused landslides that have blocked roads between the two towns and made them impassable to larger vehicles.

There are three different routes between Myawaddy, on the Thai border, and Kawkareik in Karen State. Two of those routes are passable, though only in small vehicles, according to local social assistance associations. This means that prices for travellers between the two towns have risen.

“Only small cars are able to travel from Myawaddy to Yangon. A trip by a four-seater car - three at the back and one at the front - costs 170,000 kyats per person. A trip by Hiace minivan costs 80,000 Kyat per person. Since the prices of cars are going up, so do the transportation costs”, said a person who runs a private car service between Myawaddy and Kawkareik.

A post on social media about the cost of travel said: “It is very expensive. The opportunity does not come twice. The offered price was 170,000 kyats when I asked in the evening and now, it has become 250,000 kyats.”

The three routes between Myawaddy and Kawkareik are the Myawaddy to Kawkareik section of the Asia Highway and the smaller Dawna Range Road and the Htoe Kaw Koe to Nabu Road.

Currently, the Myawaddy to Kawkareik section of the Asia Highway remains closed, but the junta authorities are working on making it passable, but they say that the repairs will take time and are dependent on weather conditions.

A junta construction team has repaired a washed-away bridge on the Dawna Range Road and rebuilt collapsed sections of the Htoe Kaw Koe to Nabu road. Following the work small cars can now travel on the two roads, though they are still impassable for trucks, meaning that currently no trucks can travel between Myawaddy and Kawkareik.

“Large vehicles have to take a break. Since only small cars are able to travel, they are carrying goods and passengers bit by bit. That is all we could do”, said a person working for a local assistance association.

Currently, there are trucks and passenger vehicles trapped in Myawaddy and Kawkareik because they cannot use the roads.  

The junta Ministry of Meteorology and Hydrology Department warned in a weather forecast on 9 August that torrential rain would continue to fall in parts of Karen State.