PM Asks Japan To Help With Phnom Penh Skytrain

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The Japanese government has agreed to conduct a feasibility study on constructing a skytrain from the city centre to the Phnom Penh International Airport to ease traffic congestion in the city.

phnom penh japan feasibility study skytrain
The proposed skytrain for Phnom Penh is aimed at helping lower traffic congestion and accidents rates. KHMER TIMES / MAI VIREAK

Prime Minister Hun Sen asked his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe to help build the $800 million skytrain while on a recent state visit to Japan.

“Japan will conduct a study on an automatic light skytrain in Phnom Penh which will ease traffic congestion and traffic accidents, as well as attract tourists to visit Cambodia,” said a statement released at the conclusion of Hun Sen’s four-day visit. The statement did not detail any specifics of the skytrain project, but the Prime Minister said before his visit to Japan that it would end at the airport.

Va Sim Soriya, spokesman at the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, said yesterday that the line from the inner city to the airport is among a few main lines that will hopefully be built in Phnom Penh. “I cannot go into detail now,” he said. “It depends on the study that will be conducted soon, after that we will know about the routes.”

To ease traffic jams and to facilitate travel for tourists, and goods from the city to airport, the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation granted the Royal Group a contract to build a 1.5-kilometer railway to the airport.

Soriya clarified yesterday that the ongoing construction by the Royal Group and skytrain are two separate projects. “It is totally not related,” he said. “For the construction by Royal Group, we use a normal train, but the skytrain project is a monorail.”

The skytrain development is scheduled to be completed before 2023, when Phnom Penh will host the Southeast Asian Games.

This article was originally published in the Khmer Times.

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