Bank Would Back Firm to Take Over Rail Project
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), which has so far contributed $84 million toward the rehabilitation of Cambodia’s dilapidated railway network, said yesterday it would support a deal to drop the current railway operator if it means the new concessionaire would foot the $60 to $100 million needed to finish the project. With funds to develop the project’s 386-km northern line exhausted and work on the rail system at a standstill, the government last week entered talks with Kampuchea Rail, a consortium of companies backed by one of the largest firm’s in China, to replace the current train operator Toll Royal Railways (TRR). … TRR, a joint venture between Australia’s Toll Holdings and Cambodia’s Royal Group, which has a 30-year concession to run trains on the network once it is renovated, indefinitely suspended its work on March 31, stating in a letter to the government that the renovation was taking too long to complete and that operating trains on the line was no longer profitable. …
