Evicted shopkeepers to get compensation spaces at new Sittwe market

By DMG 08 Aug 2022

DMG Newsroom
8 August 2022, Sittwe 

Shops removed from the vicinity of the No. 1 police station in the Arakan State capital Sittwe will receive compensatory shop spaces within Mizan Market upon its completion. 

Seventy-nine shops were removed from around the police station in 2019 in order to bolster the facility’s security. 

Shopkeepers will be compensated upon completion of the two-story Mizan Market, according to U Win Kyaw Hlaing, the manager of San Myint Tun Co, which is building the market. 

“We will provide 79 shop spaces for them at the new market, in consultation with the resources minister of the state,” he said. 

Construction of the market began in February, on land owned by the township municipality in Mizan ward. Construction is now about 45 percent complete, and the market is expected to open ahead of next year’s Thingyan festival, said Ko Win Kyaw Hlaing. 

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a shopkeeper whose shop was removed from the police station’s vicinity in 2019 told DMG: “They had agreed then that they would provide us with shop spaces when Mizan Market is built. But I hope the price is not high. We heard that we would have to pay 7.5 million kyats for a shop space.” 

The market is expected to include more than 150 shops.