Construction Sites Abandoned in Naypyidaw

03-07-2008

Two months after deadly Cyclone Nargis struck, the military regime's new capital is suffering the economic ripple effects, as construction crews leave to rebuild devastated towns. (Photo: AFP)
Construction in Burma’s capital, Naypyidaw, is practically at a standstill and many buildings have been left half-built as construction companies have relocated to the Irrawaddy delta to assist in rehabilitation efforts in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, according to residents from around Pyinmana and Naypyidaw in central Burma.

“All the construction projects were abandoned in accordance with the government’s encouragement to assist with rehabilitation,” said an official from Naypyidaw City and Development Committee (NCDC) who did not want to be named. “They moved to the delta and Rangoon to rebuild homes and reconstruct facilities.“Even the parliament building was abandoned,” he said.

Before the cyclone struck on May 2-3, many government buildings were under construction in Naypyidaw, as well as Yardaw Mingalar Market and Naypyidaw railway station.

Since the decision to relocate the Burmese capital from Rangoon in November 2005, construction in Naypyidaw had risen dramatically in reaction to the high demand for relocating government offices, accommodations for officials and other buildings to facilitate a burgeoning population.

However, since the second week of May, an estimated 80 percent of construction work has been relocated to cyclone-affected areas leaving workers in Naypyidaw jobless or forced to move with their construction companies.

Construction companies are paid per square foot by the financing government bank. All construction workers in Naypyidaw were paid the minimum 1,500 kyat ($1.25) a day.

A worker who is now looking for a job in Yadanabon Myothit, an aspiring town full of IT centers that was founded in 2006 near Mandalay, said, “I moved to Yadanabon Myothit the second week in May. My boss couldn’t offer me a job at a site in Naypyidaw.”

Construction workers would often go unpaid by their respective companies for several months in Naypyidaw, even through the work is laborious and sometimes dangerous, said the painter.

At least 25 companies and up to 80,000 construction workers from all over Burma had been working on the new capital.

“Big companies nowadays cannot get money from the government bank, so they have no money to pay the subcontractor,” a source close to a construction company said.

Some construction companies work on a subcontractor basis for the larger construction enterprises, such as Asia World and Htoo Ltd, which have received lucrative construction contracts from the government, she added.