Myanmar has accepted Thailand's 1.8-billion-baht project to improve its Thaton-Ein Du highway, a section of the East-West Economic Corridor, and asked the latter to improve other roads along the corridor.
The move is in line with the Thai cabinet's approval on Tuesday for the Highways Department to conduct the task, and both countries would form a joint committee to work out the detailed design of the project, Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said on Friday.
The Google map shows the highway route between Thaton town, left, and Ein Du, right, towards the Thai-Myanmar border. (Google map)
Myanmar also asked Thailand to improve other roads, especially those along its section of the Greater Mekong Subregion's East-West Economic Corridor that still had many bottlenecks, the minister said.
The 68-kilometre-long Thaton-Ein Du section is part of the 450km Myanmar-Thai trade link between Thailand's Mae Sot district in Tak province and Myanmar's Yangon.
The presently six-metre-wide section had poor tarmac conditions and bottlenecks along its plain-mountainous terrain.
Mr Arkhom said that construction was 93% completed on the Thai side of the second Thai-Myanmar bridge across the Moei River between Mae Sot and Myanmar's Myawaddy town. It would be part of the Mae Sot-Yangon trade link.
Myanmar recently allocated a budget for the construction of its 4km side of the bridge and would designate a site for Thailand to build a connecting checkpoint building. The bridge and the checkpoint facility would be completed next year, the Thai transport minister said.
