ADB Admits Fault in Rail Project, Pledges Compensation
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has for the first time admitted to major flaws in its efforts to protect the roughly 4,000 families losing land to a $143 million project it is funding to rehabilitate Cambodia’s dilapidated railway system. On Friday, the ADB said it would work with the Cambodian government to come up with a plan within 60 days to bring the project into full compliance with its safeguard policies, meant to prevent anyone affected by its work from ending up worse off. “While more than 90 percent of all affected households have been compensated, and more than 80 percent of households entitled to relocate have received their plots of land, ADB acknowledges that proper compensation has been an issue in some cases,” it said in a statement. … Khuon Prum Sarith lost his Phnom Penh home to the railway project two years ago and received an empty plot of land in another district in return and $700, barely enough to cover his moving expenses. He borrowed $6,000 to build a new home on the land and wants the ADB to cover the $2,600 he still owes. … Uon Song, an undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, deferred questions about the pending action plan to Nhean Leang, an undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Finance. Mr. Leang, who is also a member of the Inter-Governmental Resettlement Committee, which has final say over the resettlement sites for evictees, could not be reached. … While work on the southern line of the railway from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville is complete, the $142.6 million originally budgeted for the project is not enough to cover repairs on the much longer northern stretch from Phnom Penh to the Thai border at Poipet. At least $75 million more is needed to finish the work. …
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/adb-admits-fault-in-rail-project-pledges-compensation-51210/
