Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said that his regime is planning to construct a railroad from Kyaukphyu Deep Sea Port in the Rakhine region to Mandalay, according to government media reports.

Min Aung Hlaing brought the issue up at an Economic Committee meeting of the Military Council that mainly discussed infrastructural developments to promote the trade sector of the country with neighbouring countries.

“The Kyaukphyu-Mandalay railroad will speed up commodity flows,” the junta chief said.

The planned Kyaukphyu-Mandalay railroad is a part of China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC), and the China-backed Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone that will connect the Myanmar coast with Kunming City in the landlocked Yunnan province of China.

It will pass through Shan State and Rakhine State, as well as crossing parts of central area of Myanmar, where armed conflicts between military and resistance forces are escalating.

The 1,000 kilometre-long railroad project will be in two sections, the first one is from the border town of Muse in northern Shan State to Mandalay and the second will connect Mandalay with Kyaukphyu.

The project is being jointly developed by the China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group, a subsidiary of China Railway Engineering Group, and Myanmar Railway Company.

Myanmar and China signed an MoU for the project in 2011, and both sides exchanged a feasibility study report on the Kyaukphyu-Mandalay railroad project during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Myanmar in 2020, according to the report by the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar).