Residents in northern Shan State’s Muse Township have complained that they did not receive compensation for damage their homes and shops have incurred as a result of the expansion of the Mandalay to Muse highway.

The highway expansion project was headed by the Oriental Highway Company, a former subsidiary of the Asia World Group. The project undertaken by the firm expanded the road from two to four lanes. The company was granted permission to expand the road during the Thein Sein administration by the Ministry of Construction.

Local residents told SHAN that many houses were damaged by the construction. Every day hundreds of heavy trucks travel on the newly expanded highway which has created large cracks in the walls of homes located along the route and damaged their foundations.

“My shop was damage because of the construction,” said a resident in Muse Township who wished to be anonymous. “I have not heard anything about compensation.”

The expansion of the highway, an important trade link connecting Burma to China, has affected many households and will continue to do so, the villager told SHAN.

This road is the main route for border trade between Burma and China. The highway is more than 280 miles (450 km) long and has 13 toll gates. Asia World, a firm founded by the late businessman Lo Hsing Han and his son Stephen Law (also known as  Lo Ping Zhong and Tun Myint Naing) recently announced that it had divested itself of the Oriental Highway Company and several other subsidiaries. It remains unclear who now controls the Oriental Highway Company and the other firms offloaded by Asia World.

BY Staff / Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN)