Asian river cruise operator Pandaw has announced plans to construct two new vessels, which it will use to expand its operations in Myanmar.
The company has signed an agreement with the Sinmalike shipyard in Yangon that will see the development of two brand new vessels, the Kindat Pandaw and the Kalaw Pandaw. Both new river cruisers will be 56-metres-long and will feature 20 staterooms.
The vessels will also feature a new design, sitting less than a metre in the water. This will enable the ships to pass through shallow channels that would be inaccessible to other vessels.
“It is wonderful to be building again in Burma where we started nearly 20 years ago,” said Pandaw’s founder, Paul Strachan.
“There is a lot of ship building know-how there and we can achieve the ultra shallow drafts so essential for the extreme low water conditions now prevailing. Last year vessels of over one metre draft could not pass from Bagan to Mandalay for over three months during the peak of the high season. At Pandaw we cannot let this happen,” he added.
The Kindat Pandaw and Kalaw Pandaw will both follow the tradition of Pandaw’s other vessels, being designed as replicas of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company ships of the 1920s. They will feature classical teak woods surfaces and brass fixtures and fittings.
The Kindat and Kalaw will operate on Pandaw’s new Mandalay Pagan Packet service starting in July 2014. Along with the existing Indochina and Orient vessels, the four ships will offer a total of 100 cabins, with a capacity of 200 passengers, between Bagan and Mandalay.
Pandaw will have a total fleet will bring Pandaw’s total Irrawaddy flotilla to seven river cruisers and the total Pandaw fleet up to 12 vessels.
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