Hor Namhong Asks for More Cash for Rail Project

Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong made another appeal to Australia for additional funds to complete a behind-schedule project to rehabilitate the country’s railway network, this time to newly appointed Australian Ambassador Alison Burrows, according to a ministry spokesman. While work on the Southern Line of the railway, from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville’s seaport, is nearly completed, the projects $141.6 million budget-most of which was provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB)- is not enough to complete repairs on the northern section of the rail line. An additional $75 million to $125 million is needed to finish the project and connect the line between Phnom Penh and Poipet City on the Thai border. … The railway network, once rehabilitated, is expected to help reduce commercial transportation costs, lower consumer prices and make the country more attractive to outside investors. But local housing rights groups, supported by an independent assessment of the rail rehabilitation project commissioned by the ADB, have repeatedly criticized both Australia and the ADB for not doing enough to mitigate the economic impact on the hundreds of poor families being evicted from their homes to make way for the project. …

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