BORDER /NEW ROUTE TO BURMA

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	BORDER / NEW ROUTE TO BURMA
BANGKOK POST 9/8/99


Path to war becomes roadway for trade Southern gateway to boost business
links





Nauvarat Suksamran


A centuries-old war path between Thailand and Burma will be transformed
into a friendly trade route when a 120km highway linking Kanchanaburi
province with the Burmese coastal city of Tavoy is completed in 2001.



Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn once visited the
western province of Kanchanaburi and found a number of turtle eggs, marine
products and forest materials from the nearby Andaman coast of Burma.



The princess then suggested a route be opened to link the coast with
Kanchanaburi. This encouraged the private sector in the province to push
for a road.



"We keep Her Royal Highness informed of the progress on the trans-national
route project," said Sompop Thirasan, secretary to the Federation of
Kanchanaburi Industries.



At present, the southern province of Ranong is the only gateway for people
and cargo to and from populous southern Burma, and on to Rangoon.



The new route through Kanchanaburi will be a major short cut.



The Federation of Kanchanaburi Industries-through its Kanchanaburi Dawi
and Development Co, which is a Thai-Burmese joint venture-has been
campaigning for the road for five years.



The Burmese government has just recently given permission for the company
to begin construction of the new route.



"The construction of the Thai-Burmese highway should begin later this
year," said Mr Sompop who is also the vice-chairman of the company.



The 1.2-billion-baht route is planned as a two-lane asphalt highway.



It will stretch 120km from Kanchanaburi to Tavoy, a coastal city in
southern Burma.



Labour will be drawn from the Karen people, who still occupy much of the
area where the route will pass.



It is expected that on its completion the road will lead to the
development of bordering industrial estates in Kanchanaburi, a deep-sea
port in Tavoy and an active tourism business between Thailand and Burma.



It is also expected to slow the influx of Burmese and Karen immigrants
into Thailand because they will find work in their homeland with the hen
new industries that will emerge, said Mr Sompop. 



Originally, the Federation of Kanchanaburi Industries planned the
Thai-Burmese route on an old, unofficial border pass called Huay
Mong-Bongti in Ban Thaimuang village of Sai Yoke district, Kanchanaburi.



That route was shorter, only 100km, but there were environmental and
security problems because it would pass through a watershed and a
mountainous forest that currently marks the border.



A detour was added and the road will cross the border through the Ban
Phunamron village in tambon Ban Kao of Muang district.