New projects infringing on Old Bagan

 

Government officials are worried that an increased number of development projects in and around the Old Bagan may soon begin to impact the home to hundreds of iconic temples.

An aerial view the Aureum Palace Hotel within the Old Bagan area. (Nyan Lynn Aung/The Myanmar Times)

Land prices in Bagan began climbing on renewed tourism interest in Bagan following the instalment of a quasi-civilian government three years ago. With the number of visitors to Myanmar doubling in each of the last two years, now to more than 3 million people, land owners in Bagan are selling to developers within in the “controlled zone”, said U Naing Win, director of Archaeology, National Museum and Libraries Department of Ministry of Culture.

“This is caused by the rise in property prices,” he said, adding that residents would relocate to the outskirts of the city, overcrowding the area.

“A few people are just living there in small huts, growing crops. We have to control this now. We don’t even allow hotels to be built around the Bagan cultural zones,” said U Naing Win.

“Increased demand for hotel rooms is good for tourism, but bad for the local property market. I think that’s what led to the encroachment,” said U Naing Win.

According to police officials, the number of hotels in Old Bagan reached 77 last year, in increase of just 2 from 2012, but said there are at least seven development projects ongoing.

“Some new hotels are building in Naung Oo and the Watt Gyi Inn area after the minister of the culture gave the permit that can build three-storey buildings there,” the official said, requesting anonymity.

“In New Bagan, existing hotels are expanding by building an additional 20 to 40 rooms, while others are changing the name,” he said.

According to the police official, the price for land situated in old Bagan has grown from K20 million per 4800 square feet (445 square metres) five years ago to about K300 million now. A similar plot near Lawka Nandar Pagoda and Thiri Pyitsaya region, meanwhile, could sell for about K500 million.

Old Bagan was one of 46 sites designated in 1998 as a monument zone, ancient zone or protected zone by the Protection and Preservation of Cultural Heritage Regions law.

After New Bagan was established in the 1990s, residents of Old Bagan were forced to relocate there. New hotels were allowed only in New Bagan.

But NLD member U Khin Maung Nyo said people who sold their land were not encroaching on the protected zones. “They are just resettling around New Bagan, not Old Bagan,” he said.

Source:Myanmar Times