Country Report on Sustainable Urban Transport UNESCAP
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THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNION OF MYANMAR MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS Country Report on Sustainable Urban Transport UNESCAP Planning and Assessment of Urban Transportation Systems (22 September to 23 September 2016) MR. THEIN OO MR. HTUN AUNG THIN DIRECTOR GENERAL MANAGER ROAD TRANSPORT (LOWER MYANMAR) ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT MYANMA RAILWAYS (YANGON REGION) MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT AND MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMUNICATIONS i Table of Contents Chapter Title Pg. No. 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Background of Urban Transport System in Myanmar 1 1.3 Urban Transport in Yangon City 1 1.4 Agencies involved in Urban Transport Planning Systems/ Projects 2 1.5 Background of Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) 3 1.6 Roles and Responsibilities of Ministry of Transportation and Communications 3 1.7 Organizational Structure of MOTC and Myanmar 4 2 Urban Transport Policies 2.1 National Transport Policies and Plans in Myanmar 5 2.2 Yangon Region Transport Authority 5 2.3 National Road Safety Council 6 2.4 Current Status of Urban Transport System in Myanmar 6 2.5 Network of Urban Transportation 8 3 Data Availability on Urban Transport Indicators 3.1 Urban Road Transport Systems 10 3.2 Traffic Volume And Composition For Each Mode Of Transport For Passengers 12 And Freight, Number Of Motor Vehicles 4 Issues and Challenges faced by Urban Transport Systems 4.1 Identification of Issues faced by Urban Transport Systems 14 4.2 Causes and Background of Issues and Problems 17 4.3 Measures against above mentioned Issues and Problems 18 4.4 The Challenges of Urban Public Transport in Myanmar and Urban Transport 19 Development Strategy for Yangon 5 Conclusions, Recommendations and Way Forward 5.1 Conclusions 22 5.2 Recommendations and Way Forward 22 i List of Figures Figure Title Pg No. Figure 1.1 Organizational Chart of Myanma Railways 4 Figure 2.1 Circular Network 8 Figure 2.2 BRT Network Concept for Yangon 9 Figure 4.1 Traffic Accident Rate in Myanmar 15 Figure 4.2 The Vicious Circle of Congestion 15 Figure 4.3 Paradigm Shift in Transport Planning 16 Figure 4.4 Comprehensive Traffic Management 16 Figure 4.5 TDM Measures 16 Figure 4.6 Road Density (km of road per square km of land area, 2010) 18 ii List of Tables Table Title Pg. No Table 2.1 Road Network and its Length 8 Table 3.1 Number of Vehicles in Yangon 10 Table 3.2 Number of Vehicles in Myanmar 11 Table 3.3 Passenger Volume in Rail Sector 12 Table 3.4 Passenger Volume in Road Sector 12 Table 3.5 Freight Volume in Rail Sector 12 Table 3.6 Freight Volume in Road Sector 13 Table 3.7 Total Vehicle Volume in Yangon Urban Area 13 Table 3.8 Passenger Buses in Yangon 13 Table 4.1 Decision Process for Yangon City Vision 18 iii Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Introduction Sustainable Urban transportation system generally contributes to the improvement in quality of life by supporting the economic growth of a country. In Myanmar, urban transport infrastructure today is heavily dominated by the municipal area of Yangon which has a population of around five million. The second largest cities are Mandalay municipality, which has about one million inhabitants, and the third one, Mawlamyine, has only around half a million. Nowadays, Yangon is nowhere near large enough yet to run into the diseconomies of scale that some of the world’s megacities face. Nevertheless, while Yangon is likely to continue to dominate Myanmar's urban structure and exclusive focus on the nation's commercial center would not necessary confer the most economic social benefits. One spatial economic analysis of Myanmar suggests that a Uni- polar development model would not yield the optimal economic and social effect. The growth of each city depends on many factors and will happen originally to a large degree. While Myanmar’s big cities are likely to lead the urbanization trends in early stages, Myanmar’s urban future lies beyond just Yangon. While urbanization in proven force for GDP and rising living standards, those benefits are not assured. Our country is at a very early stage in urbanization and can avoid the stress of urban expansion if it plans proactively and emulates how other countries have managed the process. 1.2 Background of Urban Transport System in Myanmar The urban transport sector in Myanmar shows a range of challenges and the government is looking for the international support across the sector, in urban public transportation system such as highway transit system, railway system. The roadway network system in Yangon is reasonably getting worse with the terrible traffic congestion in Yangon, nevertheless this is not comparable with the congestion that has been faced elsewhere in South- East Asia countries such as Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and Bangkok. However, the level of traffic growth rate became significant just a few years ago, and could lead to big problem for future urban transport in major cities. It was caused by floating currency and reduction in restrictions on car import policies in 2012 created the number of vehicles to double within just 3 years. Without good Public transport system, it was failed to adjust increasing traffic in major and secondary cities. 1.3 Urban Transport in Yangon City Yangon has a high population density in the inner city. The transport system is characterized by • Road network supporting the inner city • Private and public bus transport system • Outdated railway system of about 48 km 1 • Motorcycles are not allowed to use in the Yangon city limit • Trishaws and bicycles are used in most parts of the city (exclusive lanes for them are not available) Urban public transport in Yangon is largely privately operated with a conventional bus network utilizing buses that would appear to be predominantly old. The current railway network currently is uneconomical and as a result the resources are not in place to bring services up to an acceptable standard. The circular railway around Yangon offers a very low level of service, is understood to be heavily used. This suggests that there is significant demand for public transport. So, without significant investment, urban public transportation system will not provide the service that covers the demand. 1.4 Agencies involved in Urban Transport Planning Systems/Projects During the past years, the lack of an overall approach to transport planning was the complex and fragmented institutional structure. Myanmar’s transport sector was managed by six ministries and several city development committees. They were (i) Ministry of Transport (MOT) (ii) Ministry of Rail Transportation (MORT); (iii) Ministry of Construction (MOC); (iv) Ministry for Progress of Border Areas and National Races and Development Affairs; (v) Ministry of Defense (MOD); (vi) Ministry of Home Affairs; and (vii) Yangon, Mandalay, and Nay Pyi Taw city development committees. Among them, the MOC, the MORT, and the MOT are the most important parts for the country’s transport networks. The significant problems of managing the transport network by many ministries are (i) No agency with overall responsibility for the transport sector; (ii) No clear responsibility; for example, road-related activities fall under the MOC, the MORT, and the MOT; (iii) MORT and the MOT consist of a mix of departments and state transport enterprises (iv) Critical road-related activities, such as regulation, driver and vehicle licensing, and safety, are the responsibility of the MORT; and (v) MOC, the agency responsible for constructing and maintaining roads, has no formal involvement with regulating the vehicles that use the roads, or with road safety. At the present time, the main agencies involve in urban transport planning are as follows; Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC), which is in charge of local roads and urban planning; Yangon Regional Government, which chairs the Ma Hta Tha Central in charge of transport services; 2 Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC), which oversees the Myanma Railways and the Road Transport Administration Department, and has legal responsibilities regarding public transport licensing, which it chooses to enact through Ma Hta Tha Central; Ministry of Construction, which is in charge of national and state highways but, in practice, does not prioritize the Yangon region; and Ministry of Home Affairs, which oversees the traffic police. 1.5 Background of Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) When Myanmar gained independence, the Ministry of Waterways and Civil Aviation and Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications were formed. In 1961, the above- mentioned ministries were merged and reconstituted as the Ministry of Transport and Communications with (11) organizations. In 1972, it was again reconstituted as the Ministry of Transport and Communications. It consists of (17) organizations. In 1992, it was reconstituted into three ministries, namely Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Rail Transportation and Ministry of Communications, Posts and Telegraphs. When the Ministry of Transport was first formed it has (4) departments, (5) enterprises and (1) training institute, totaling (10) organizations. The Meteorology and Hydrology Department was added to the Ministry of Transport on 20 August 1999. Myanmar Maritime University was inaugurated on 1 August 2002. Currently there are (5) departments, (5) enterprises (1) university and (1) college, totaling (12) organizations under the Ministry of Transport. 1.6 Roles and Responsibilities of Ministry of Transportation and Communications Ministry of Transport and Communications