A ceremony was held at Yangon's Central Railway Station on Tuesday to launch the new rolling stock purchased with an Indian government loan, said the "New Light of Myanmar".

Myanmar Railways bought 11 locomotives, 12 upper class coaches, 22 ordinary class coaches and spare parts with a USD 57 million credit awarded by the Indian government to upgrade the Yangon-Mandalay trunk line and its facilities, the report said.

Mandalay is the country's second-largest city. Pyinmana, formerly a provincial trading town about 400 kilometres north of the old capital, lies on the highway between Yangon and Mandalay.

Since the government announced in November that it was moving its capital, it has launched regular rail, car and air services between Pyinmana and Yangon.

Indian railways supplied coaches and locomotives to neighbouring Myanmar in the mid-1960s.