The Ministry of Public Works and Transport on April 6 asked the Metro Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help devise strategies for monorail and subway projects planned for Phnom Penh.

Minister Sun Chanthol made the request at a virtual meeting with an ADB delegation led by urban development specialist Alexander D Nash.

Chanthol noted that a feasibility study on the monorail project was recently completed and that another one on the subway development was due next month. Both are conducted by Chinese companies.

“I request the ADB review the results of these two project studies and prepare a development strategy. If these projects can secure investment from private companies, it’d cut down on traffic congestion, improve the image of Phnom Penh to whole new heights and complement national development,” he said.

The minister also asked the ADB to provide insight and help orient the development of Cambodia’s cross-border facilities to improve the Kingdom’s logistics and transport sector, which he said would lift trade volumes and increase access to regional markets, especially in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) and ASEAN.

“We want to open direct routes to the border and regional transits, which will improve the livelihoods of the Cambodian people,” Chanthol said.

According to the minister, Nash said the ADB would review the request.

He noted that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) had also recently completed a feasibility study on an automated guideway transit (AGT) system.

Once all three studies are completed, the ministry will submit them to the government for review and approval, he said.

These monumental mass-transit projects have long been in the pipeline as road traffic in the capital becomes progressively more congested, as more vehicles hit the road and the population size increases.

In early June 2018, Chanthol noted that an 18km Japanese-funded sky-train project would be built from Phsar Thmey (Central Market) to Phnom Penh International Airport at a cost of between $800 million and $1 billion.

He said there were also plans to build sky-train lines along major roads such as Monivong, Kampuchea Krom, Charles de Gaulle, Monireth and Veng Sreng boulevards.