Three Mandalay projects delayed pending review
Three Mandalay Region development projects approved under the previous government are being reconsidered under the National League for Democracy administration. The projects are temporarily stalled while experts study potential negative impacts on the local environment and the public, officials have noted. Organising committees have been formed to analyse all three projects, said regional Minister for Electricity, Energy and Construction U Zarni Aung. The first delayed project is in Mandalay Region’s Amarapura township: Taungthaman Resort, which was approved in March 2015 and expanded in March of this year, just before the government changed hands. Construction began in April 2015 and was halted in May of this year, with officials citing environmental concerns, and then resumed and halted again in September. The committee will examine the project’s impacts on the local ecosystem and cultural heritage. In mid-September, a new road project linking Pyin Oo Lwin to Mandalay was shelved because nearly 22 miles of it would wind through a forest, necessitating that 75,000 trees be chopped down.
