City Hall to widen National Road 6

Monday, 26 April 2010 15:02 Kim Yuthana

Photo by: Rick Valenzuela

Chan Sreymom paints a tiger in her shop on National Road 6 in Chruoy Changvar commune while speaking to neighbouring vendor Por Sokha about a road-expansion project that will force them to push back their properties. Each has a storefront 2 metres from the road.

Phnom Penh Post
CITY Hall plans to more than double the width of National Road 6 over a stretch of 4 kilometres from the Cambodian-Japanese Friendship Bridge in Russey Keo district to a new Ministry of Health building, according to an announcement released on Friday.

The news has prompted concern on the part of some families living along the road, though officials and a rights group representative on Sunday could not provide an estimate of how many families or businesses stand to be affected by the expansion.


According to the announcement, the road will be expanded from a width of 25 metres to 60 metres, including a 3-metre-wide sidewalk on each side and a 2.5-metre median.

The project is part of an effort to ease traffic on the stretch of road, the announcement states.

No mention is made of a timeline or of the need to relocate families, though local officials acknowledged on Sunday that some would be displaced.

Koub Sleah, the deputy governor of Russey Keo district, said most of the residents who would need to move had been informed already, and that some had reacted negatively to the news.

“Excavators are already doing the work in some places where the residents agreed to move, but in some places the residents have not agreed to move,” he said.

Pich Saroeun, the deputy governor of Chruoy Changvar commune, said most of the residents had agreed to move despite the fact that no form of compensation had been offered to them.

“We have informed them so many times,” he said. “We tried to explain to some residents who do not agree and to make them agree.”

Bol Samnang, who has lived at a site along the road near the bridge for more than 10 years, said he and other residents planned to lodge an appeal for monetary compensation.

Chan Soveth, a senior investigator for the rights group Adhoc, said he doubted that most families had agreed to move in exchange for nothing in return, and called on local officials to provide compensation.