Tala Mon Ltd is the company charged with the task of transposing what is currently just a single unit of rail-track and a rusting steam engine into a major visitor draw. Under the terms of the contract, Tala Mon will build a museum, accommodation units, eateries and units to house souvenir shops.
Mon State minister Toe Toe Aung said there were plenty of relics and photographs on hand that would make sure a visit to the museum was an enlightening experience. He said they would depict the hardships prisoners-of-war endured building the Death Railway and a potted history of it.
The minister continued by adding the museum should be finished by mid-2015 and that officers would be requesting a budget to lay one mile of track for the locomotive. The Death Railway ran from Ban Pong in Thailand to Thanbyuzayat and was constructed by the Japanese army to supply its front-line troops in what was then known as Burma.
An estimated 100,000 conscripted Asian labourers and prisoners-of-war died of starvation, exhaustion and illness while they were building the 415km-long (258 miles) track. Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery is home to the remains of 3,000 of the Allied prisoners.
Myanmar to develop WWII Death Railway terminus
News in Asia
A local government organisation in Myanmar has announced it will develop the west terminus of the notorious WWII Death Railway. Government officials in Mon State have signed a deal to improve and set up new tourism facilities in Thanbyuzayat Township.