News
Myanmar's Ministry of Transport and Communications has started inland water transport (IWT), a multi-purpose container barge service to transport goods along the Ayeyarwady River and containers in the Yangon River. The service was started to reduce transportation costs and relieve congestion on the road.
Ten trips with 40 containers were transported by container barges and tugboats along the river between Myanmar International Terminals Thilawa (MITT) and Shwe Me Port, Shwepyitha Township from March 9 to April 7 on a trial run. After the successful trial, the service was launched on May 11, 2017. Riverine transport of containers greatly reduces traffic congestion on Yangon roads caused by the container cars and will reduce costs and transport time.
The multi-purpose container barge project was implemented with the support of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and SA Marine Company based in Fukuyama City in Hiroshima Prefecture Japan, which signed an agreement on December 23, 2014 to build the container barge. The SA Marine ordered the Myanmar Shipyards on March 25, 2015 to build the 60-meter long, 15-meter wide, 3-meter deep container barge with a draught of 1-1.7 meters that can carry up to 22 40-foot containers.
