Nevertheless, Shankalay will soon stop being a small village. In March 2016, the Mandalay City Development Committee signed an agreement with the Mandalay Business Capital City Development Company (MBCCD) to develop the area with a project that will include modern hotels, hospitals, schools, jetties, shopping centres, gardens and apartment buildings. 

The project is part of a bigger plan to modernize Mandalay and is expected to be completed in 10 years. The company started the construction of the first phase of the project in December 2017 after receiving approval from the local government [1]. According to the Myanmar Times, the project will be approved in different phases [2].

Little information about the project has been disclosed and villagers worry about their future. The company has offered to buy the land, but some villagers are opposed to leaving. According to the government, villagers could also be relocated to new houses in the same complex when it is finished [3]. The project also includes the expropriation of a big portion of the agricultural land used by the villagers and they would have to find other ways of making a living. The total area claimed will be around 2000 acres (809 hectares).

Villagers have also raised concerns about the impact of the project on the hydrology of the river, because the area is prone to flooding [4]. The project might also affect other communities because the waterway will be narrowed and the strength of the current during the monsoon season will increase, swamping places farther along the riverbank. Moreover, the island has already been suffered river bank erosion due to the dredging in the river of sand used in the construction in the area.

The company has estimated an initial investment in the project of 500 billion kyats (USD375 millions).

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