The Shwepyithit, which will carry tourists between Mandalay, Nyaung Oo and Bagan. It will join three other IWT boats which ply the scenic route on the Ayeyarwaddy River.

INLAND Water Transport, under the Ministry of Transport, launched two passenger craft and a container boat this month, bringing the total number of vessels in its fleet to 412.

The manager of IWT, U Myo Myint, said the passenger boats included the 100-foot-long Shwepyithit, which will carry tourists on the Ayeyarwaddy River between Mandalay and Nyaung Oo and Bagan.

He said the single deck craft, which has 20 seats in ordinary class and 69 upper class seats, will take eight hours to travel between Mandalay and Bagan, a distance of 129 miles.

The Shwepyithit will join three other IWT boats – the Shwe Kainayi I, II and III – which have carried tourists between Mandalay and Bagan since 1996.

The other passenger craft is the double-deck, Waiponla, which will run from Yangon to Labutta in Ayeyarwaddy Division.

The Waiponla, which is 115-feet long and can carry more than 400 passengers, will take four days to travel the 171 miles between Yangon and Labutta, U Myo Myint said. The boat will travel at 10 nautical miles an hour, he said.

U Myo Myint said it had been decided to operate the Waiponla in Delta Division, one of five supervised by the IWT, because of heavy demand.

“The most number of boats operate in Delta Division, but its population is so dense and number of people relying on waterways travel so high that we decided to run the Waiponla on the Yangon-Labutta route,” he said.

The container boat, which is 160 feet long and can carry up to 32 20-foot containers, will operate where it is needed, U Myo Myint said.

He said the three boats were built at the Dala Dockyard using Myanmar know-how and with the assistance of the ministry. The boats had taken about a year to complete.

The IWT has 207 passenger boats and 205 cargo vessels.