Canal to link Phnom Penh to sea

[reader]

From Global Construction Review

Cambodia will start work this year on a controversial plan to dig a 180km canal to link Phnom Penh to the sea, The Star newspaper reports. 

The Funan Techo canal, which is expected to cost $1.7bn, will link the capital to the country’s only deepwater port at Sihanoukville and a new port at Kampot.

China Road and Bridge Corporation, a subsidiary of China Communications, will build it over four years.

Wesley Holzer, a public diplomacy officer at the US embassy in Phnom Penh, said the Cambodian people, along with people in neighbouring countries, would “benefit from transparency on any major undertaking with potential implications for regional water management, agricultural sustainability, and security”.

Vietnam has expressed concern about the impact of the canal on the fragile ecology of the Mekong basin and is also reported to be concerned that it will allow Chinese navy ships to approach its territory.

[vinapu]

4 hours ago, reader said:

Vietnam has expressed concern about the impact of the canal on the fragile ecology of the Mekong basin and is also reported to be concerned that it will allow Chinese navy ships to approach its territory.

and it will certainly help Cambodia to be more indebted and more   colonized by Chinese after those two mega airport projects.

I still marvel at fact that new Siem Reap airport did not have any sign in Khmer, just English and Chinese like Chonquing or Harbin airports.

On merit,  I think railway would better idea and less disruptive to environment than canal able presumably to carry ocean bound vessels.

Expected cost of 1.7 bn will for sure be twice as much if not more when completed as all big infrastructure projects are.