Tourists and truck drivers want the damaged section of the Takow-Kyung Tong section of Union Highway No. 4 to be repaired.
The Taunggyi-Tachileik road is an important route for transporting local products from Thailand and China as well as domestic imports, but due to the deterioration of the road, travel and trade are taking longer than expected, according to travelers.
The Taunggyi-Tachileik road used to take only 12 hours for private cars and almost 2 to 3 days for trucks, but now the travel time has been more than 2 times longer.
“The road has been getting worse for the past three years. With the closure of the Shan North and Myawaddy roads, trucks and fruit trucks have been flocking to Shan East. That’s why the road has deteriorated even more. Now, it’s even more difficult to travel on the road during the rainy season. Just because the road slips in the Ming Tu Taung mountain, we have a lot of trouble,” said Sein Thaung, a truck driver for nearly 30 years.
The Takaw-Kyaung Tong road used to take about five hours to drive when the road was good, but now it takes more than eight hours. A tourist posted on social media that even buffaloes are getting wet in the puddles on the damaged road.
The damaged road, which is steep and winding along the Taunggyi-Tachileik road, is dangerous for truck drivers, and truck accidents occur frequently every year, according to tourists.
The Taunggyi-Tachileik road is over 300 miles long, and the damaged section is the worst in Mongkhon Township in eastern Shan State, covering over 100 miles.
