Foreign firms to jointly build coal-fired power plant in Myanmar

Firms from Myanmar, India and Singapore forming a public-private joint venture will build a coal- fired power plant in Kyauktan township, south of Yangon, an official report said Sunday.

The firms will build the plant on 243 hectares' plot in the township, aimed at meeting the region's rising power demand.

Once the project is approved by the regional government, the construction of the plant will start in 6 to 12 months and is targeted to complete within three years, the developers were quoted as saying.

The project, estimated to cost 900 million U.S. dollars to 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, is set to adhere to an environmental impact assessment and survey by the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry.

According to official statistics, Myanmar draws 72 percent of electricity from hydropower, 24 percent from natural gas and 4 percent from coal-fired plants. Enditem