YCDC scales back Peoples Park project

after scrutiny
By Shwegu Thitsar | Sunday, 01 September 2013
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Yangon City Development Committee has ordered the developer of a
controversial handicrafts centre in Peoples Park to demolish the third floor of
the uncompleted building.
The unfinished
handicrafts centre in Peoples Park. (Shwegu Thitsar/The Myanmar Times)
The project, which fronts U Wisara Road and is opposite the western stairway of
Shwedagon Pagoda, has sparked complaints because of its proximity to Shwedagon and
the opaque manner in which a large amount of public parkland was awarded to the
company.
Developer Nature World Company said it would redesign the 186 by 42 metre (620 by 140
foot) building based on a two-storey layout and is hopeful that it can still be completed by
the end of the year. Construction work began in August 2012 and is about 60 percent
complete, the company said.
Initially we got permission to build a three-storey building here using a traditional
Myanmar design but now we have to demolish the third floor. The relevant authorities told
us to remove it, Nature World deputy general manager U Maung Maung said.
They said there were various reasons why they had instructed us to decrease the height of
the building. We are going to draw a new design for it, he said, adding that the project
had caused problems for YCDC because members of the public had questioned why it had
given Nature World permission to use the land.
Another company official said the decision to reduce the height of the development was not
related to planning laws that ban high structures in the vicinity of the pagoda.