Cut rail link sends fresh produce prices off track

Tuesday, 07 September 2010 23:49 Salai Han Thar San

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Fresh vegetable and flower prices at markets in the Kachin State capital have risen as much as 60 per cent since an express train derailed on the Mandalay-Myitkyina line three days ago, damaging the important trade link.

The train, which had left Mandalay at noon on Sunday, went off the tracks between Namkham and Bonechaung stations in Wuntho Township, Sagaing Division. The locomotive and one of nine passenger cars derailed and overturned. The damaged section is being repaired but the line has been cut since.

Though the original train had arrived in Myitkyina at 4:30 a.m. this morning (Tuesday), shipments of vegetables such as cabbages, tomatoes and cauliflowers had rotted, causing traders heavy losses, a trader in Myitkyina said.

“Some lost about one or two lakhs Kyat [about US$100-US$200] and some medium-scale traders lost about five lakhs Kyat,” he said.

The scarcity caused by cut trade route has forced up the prices of gladiolus, chrysanthemums, tomatoes, cabbages, cauliflower and chillies.

“The price of gladiolus and chrysanthemum has soared. The price jumped from 800 Kyat (about 80 US cents) to 1,300. The prices of other vegetables have also risen. But, we can’t do anything about it so I just bought them at the high prices”, a woman from Myitkyina told Mizzima.

Despite second-hand reports of two deaths in the derailment, a spokesman at Myitkyina station said no one was killed. Mandalay Station staff said they were unaware of any deaths.

“The service between Myitkyina and Mandalay was suspended three days ago. But, we hope the situation will be normal after the next seven days”, a Mandalay Station spokesman told Mizzima.

However, an official from from Myitkyina Station said he was unable to estimate when services would resume.

Four trains run between Mandalay and Myitkyina under the management of the Ministry of Rail Transport, which operates a total of 433 trains including passenger and freight services through 840 stations across Burma, the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported in early January.

On December 30, 1994, on the outskirts of Wuntho, a train travelling on the same line derailed when its brakes failed and one passenger car plummeted into a ravine. A total of 102 people were killed and 53 were seriously injured, the Associated Press reported on January 2, 1995.