Since taking over the government earlier this year, the National League for Democracy has been tough on the rampant and rapid construction of high-rises in Yangon.
In May, it government suspended all buildings with nine or more floors while construction was reviewed and last week, 12 projects were ordered to slash floors from their plans.
The developers behind those projects say they could be put them out of business and will suffer billions in losses, the Myanmar Times reports.
“If we have to demolish floors that have already been built there will be consequences,” Myo Myint from MKT Construction told the Times. “We will have to break our commitments to buyers, subcontractors, foreign partners and banks. If we have to follow these orders, we will repay our debts as much as we can, but some of us will not be able to, and will go bankrupt.”
The high-rise inspection committee says the review is both checking that projects fit with urban plans that have been publicly released and considering the impact on the environment.
“We are inspecting the technical standards of buildings and their impact on the city,” Ye Min Oo, a spokesperson for the committee told the Times. “If project seems to present a danger to the city’s character or to residential areas even if the construction is sound, we will tell the company to make changes.”
But developers told a Yangon press conference yesterday that they estimated their combined losses at $340 and the total lost, if more firms were ordered to change their plans, could amount to $6 billion.
“The [high-rise inspection] committee said it wants to save Yangon and the character of Yangon,” said Myo Mtint. “These are very good words to use but they should focus on checking whether high-rise projects are following policies set out by the former government or not. They shouldn’t inspect according to new policies.
“We are not privileged people and we are not saving our city, but we are people who want to develop the city as well as we can.”
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