CEO Magazine - Interview with Gruffudd Owain, Executive Principal, Aedas
Introduction The Myanmar Infrastructure Summit, organised by Confexhub, was held in March. We interview speaker and sponsor, Mr. Gruffudd ab Owain, Executive Principal from Aedas on infrastructure and transportation in Yangon.
Profile of Gruffudd ab Owain Mr. Gruffudd ab Owain has over 18 years of experience in different fields of architecture especially in Singapore, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. He has been involved in many mixed use and commercial projects like Marina Bay Sands, Damansara Masterplan, Sentosa Boardwalk as well as transportation and infrastructure projects like Dubai Metro.
What is your opinion of the current transport and infrastructure system in Yangon? As far as I know, there is a circle line that goes through the city. There is a need to review the current system due to the increasing number of cars. The main challenge in Yangon is developing an infrastructure system for the future and how to build it around the existing system.
What should the government consider for the infrastructure system in the long and short-term? In the long term, the government should be considering a metro system. A pitfall would be if it only looks at the short term. It has to consider scalability and expandability. It also needs to consider how to improve the existing infrastructure and work the future plans so that the infrastructure system becomes the spinal cord of the city planning.
It is possible to build a subway system in Yangon? An extreme comparison to Yangon right now is Jakarta. Jakarta and the Greater Jakarta region is a huge urbanised city and it is building its first metro now. Yangon might have 5 million but I think the fact that Jakarta has finally embraced the metro system shows that Yangon can do so as well. The game is to understand what system - tram, train, metro - makes sense for the city and speak to all the major rail suppliers who can help you understand. Then, look at how the other cities in the region have adopted the systems and learn from their experiences.
I would encourage for the metro system to go underground. At ground level, it will affect the existing infrastructure. It will be a bold decision to go underground as it is very costly but it is the right decision as you have to consider the long term, especially when you have such amazing assets here that need to be preserved. One of the challenges is the ground conditions - there are 'silty', alluvial soils here so there are very fast moving groundwater issues and this presents a design challenge when we design the station boxes, but we've got experiences in projects in Singapore where conditions are similar and it is possible to do underground stations in that type of ground material.
How long will it take to build a metro system in Yangon? That’s the big challenge. From the day you say “I want to build a metro system” to the day you open it, about 10 years. So that’s a major issue. You have to look at what you are going to do in 10 years and what Yangon is going to be like in 10 years. I’ve been in conferences where they talk about the urbanisation in Yangon where there will be double of the population of 10 million by 2025. So that’s the major issue you got to start thinking about now. You also have to consider all the other systems like Light Rail Transit, Tram, etc and how they can integrate into the metro system.
Can we build a metro system with sustainable technology? The metro system is definitely more energy saving as it cuts down the use of motor vehicles. The World Wildlife Fund envisions a world run on renewable energy by 2050. If the people who are driving cars now can be moved to use the metro system in future, this will cut down carbon emissions greatly.
What are the important factors to consider in building expensive metro systems? With infrastructure projects, they are huge, complex and expensive. Yangon can leverage regional experience. You have partners in ASEAN that are more than willing to share their experiences. These cities have gone through exactly what Myanmar, Yangon, is looking at now. But look at the investment part which is a challenge as well. Metros don't make money, they make cities work and the cities make money. People have tried to use a model where the metro has to be financially viable. As long as it doesn’t use up a huge amount, the game is that it basically is a service that helps the city make money. You will have to develop the framework, the infrastructure and how you are going to build this metro system first, and then target on which areas need to be focused on first. As I said, it’s something that is on a 50-year plan, it depends on how you grow that metro over the next 50 years.
Tell us more about elevated metros? We have done elevated metros in Singapore and we are doing one right now in the west of Singapore, which is an industrial area. Most metros in Singapore are now below ground. That's the general rule, but not exclusive. We are working on underground metros in Malaysia and also a elevated metro in Jakarta and that’s a combination where part of the metro is below ground, part above ground. We’ve worked on elevated metros in Dubai as well. My personal choice and looking at the Yangon model, you really want to consider if it’s at all possible to be putting it underground. Short term gain, financial gain is a problem for the next 50 years, that’s the difference. It’s having the confidence, the vision, to hold fast to that requirement to ensure that you have an elegant city at the end of the construction phase. You haven’t blighted it with major infrastructure running down what is fantastic avenues and boulevards you have here.