Construction on a 20-billion-dollar rail link between the Myanmar's Chinese border and its western coast could begin as early as December, officials said Monday, dpa reported.
"We will start the construction of Muse-Kyauk Phyu railroad in the coming December if detailed discussions on the agreement are completed," Myanmar Railway Transportation Minister Aung Min said.
The railroad would start at the Shan State's border town of Muse in the north-east and span 800 kilometres across the country to end up at the Rakhine state's port city of Kyauk Phyu on the Bay of Bengal.
"The whole project will take five years and cost about 20 billion US dollars. China will bear the cost and the agreement will be based on BOT (build, operate and transfer) for 50 years," Aung Min told the German Press Agency dpa.
The electric trains will be capable of travelling at speeds of up to 200 kilometres per hour and of carrying 4,000 tons of goods.
"China will use this railroad to transport goods from Kyauk Phyu port to its capital Beijing and other cities via Ruli and Kunming," Aung Min said. "Their ships will no longer need to sail through Malaca strait."
China also has made plans to build a pipeline along the same route as the railway to carry natural gas to Yunnan, southern China.
Myanmar's Rail Transportation Ministry and China's Railways Engineering Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding in April to jointly develop the China-Myanmar railway.
The project has raised concern among human rights groups.
"The railroad will pass though parts of the Shan state that are still contested," said David Mathieson, Myanmar expert for Human Rights Watch.
"But I'm more concerned about the security corridor attached to such projects, which have a past record for human rights abuses such as forced labour and land confiscation."