About 200 residents of the town of Gangaw held a rally yesterday to demand the construction of a suspension bridge over the Myittha River to link their town to Zahaw Village.
The rally was led by former MP Hla Swe, a member of the opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party.
The suspension bridge project is said to have been approved by the previous government with a budget of over Ks 427 million. However, it has since been suspended by the new NLD-led government.
At the rally, the protestors chanted slogans such as: Build the Zahaw suspension bridge; Those who attempt to stop the project are our enemies; and Where is the budget of Ks 427.675 million?
“The previous government approved the budget for the project. We heard that under the new government, a tender was opened in May. Looking at the copy of the tender, I found that the budget was Ks 427.675 million. Later, we learned that the suspension bridge project was suspended,” said protestor Bo Sein from Zahaw Village.
Meanwhile, some villagers disapproved of the protest, saying that the suspension bridge was not necessary and that a reinforced concrete bridge should be built to allow for more links as well as use of cars.
“We’d rather have a reinforced concrete bridge. Some people are staging their protest to demand a suspension bridge linking Gangaw and Zahaw. If a concrete bridge is built in place of the suspension one, not Zahaw village alone but the whole region on the western bank of the river will benefit. Cars cannot run on the proposed suspension bridge,” said Zahaw villager Paw Lwin Oo.
Source: Eleven Myanmar
