Railway families given deadline
Nearly 100 families affected by a railway land dispute have been given a 30-day ultimatum to accept compensation or lose it. The demand came from an inter-ministerial committee set up to resolve the cases of three families in Banteay Meanchey province and 94 families in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo, Daun Penh, Por Senchey and Sen Sok districts. The railway upgrade was agreed between Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Thai counterpart Prayut Chan-o-cha in December 2015. The plan is for a Phnom Penh to Bangkok link as part of a plan to boost trade to $20 billion by 2020. The committee said a working group of inter-ministerial and local authorities had agreed on additional compensation for people who were affected and whose affected land in Phnom Penh and Poipet was smaller than 30 square meters.
