Green signal for reconstruction of Tahan market
September 1, 2007 - The contentious Tahan market reconstruction in Kalay Township, Sagaing division, Burma, has been given the green signal. After months of dogged controversy Nay Pyi Daw, the new administrative headquarters in Burma gave the go ahead to the Market Construction Committee to finish constructing. The market was gutted in a fire a year ago.
The unfinished condition of Tahan market in Kalay, Sagaing division of Burma.
General Thura Shwe Mann arrived in Kalay town on August 15 and permitted completing the unfinished Tahan market. The General also set a deadline to finish the construction. It has to be done by July next year, a local in Kalay said.
Soe Win, president of Kalay's Township Peace and Development Council, stopped the reconstruction of Tahan market five months ago because of a dispute between the construction committee and shop owners of the gutted market regarding the number of floors to be built.
The shop owners withdrew their money from the construction fund of the market construction committee following which construction was halted.
Now, the TPDC authorities and shop owners have come together and recollected the funds for construction for the second time, according to sources in Kalay.
Though the number of rooms to be built is not known yet, the construction committee is expecting to sell the rooms for Kyat 20 to 30 lakhs depending on which floor the rooms are, said a local in Kalay.
Initially, the shop owners from the gutted market were supposed to design the building by themselves. Later, the authorities intervened and told an architect to design the Tahan market.
Tahan market caught fire in August 2006. It was rumoured that the incidents might have been planned by the junta. – Khonumthung.
