By July the previous year about a year had elapsed since construction had started. The efficacy of the rush-construction ordered in March this year became manifest as the news came through that the excavation of the rocky hill on the Chungkai section of the track was within a few days of completion, as also was work on the plank viaducts at 103 km and 109 km. The completion of construction of the Mae Khlaung steel bridge together with the planned opening to traffic of the railtrack extension was under control of the engineers’ railtrack extension unit, 2 Battalion, who had previously been waiting at Kamburi station, eager to become wholly involved in the further extension of the railtrack.

On Burma-side, 5 Railway Regiment at the close of the previous year had completed the lorry highway as far as Nikki. They now wrestled in earnest with making the roadbed, pushed on the railhead to a point about 30 km East of Thanbyusayat, set up their regimental HQ at Taungzun and, when their 1 Battalion had completed the temporary bridge over River Sittang, drove ahead with roadbed work, helped by 4 Battalion, who came from the East to reinforce them. They hurried on with the job, too, not being sure, with the rainy season coming on, how far they would get.

On Thai-side, too, in addition to the important section between Wanyai and Tamuron Part, each unit daily risked death in their endeavours to keep up with the volume of work, and there was still a little on the section uncompleted. From June a second railhead extension on from Kinsaiyok was nearly finished. At the time 9 Railway Regiment believed the railtrack could be completed by the end of August, Construction HQ inclining towards that bare possibility.

Reinforcements arrived at each site and prisoners and coolies were successively introduced into the outback. The year before, an engineering unit and a service unit had taken part in constructing the highway leading to the Wanyai and Kinsaiyok bases and they had opened to daily traffic with lorries, an infantry unit, reluctant prisoners and coolies all mixed up together., In the rainy weather wheeled traffic got through with difficulty on the muddy road-surfaces.