Lower House of the Parliament has submitted a proposal calling for special attention to constructing and upgrading of village-to-village roads in the states of Myanmar including townships with poor transport.

MP Nay Lin Aung for Mindat Constituency put forward the motion during a parliament session of the Lower House held in Nay Pyi Taw on February 18. The matter was discussed, the Ministry of Construction made a clarification and parliament approved the proposal.

When the proposal was submitted, Deputy Minister for Construction Kyaw Lin made his clarification and requested parliamentary approval. MP Nay Lin Aung also urged parliament to discuss and approve the motion. So the motion was approved after parliamentary debate on March 14.

"There are 63,729 villages across the country and about 70 percent of the population is from rural areas. It is very important for the development of rural people. Rural development is a contributing factor for national progress. For rural development, it is important to have village-to-village roads to ensure socio-economic progress. Lack of good transport poses a barrier to socio-economy development. I think my motion needs approval," said the lawmaker.

He also blamed social, economic and educational hardships such as high cost of living, few chances to pursue education and stagnant commodity flow for poor transport.

Myanmar has about 60,000 miles of rural roads, among which only 6 percent is concrete or tar, 28 percent gravel or red earth roads and 66 percent earthen roads. About one fifth of village roads can have links between each other only in summer. That means over 15 million people in the country have to feel separated as they have no all-weather roads, the MP revealed.