The Steering Committee Meeting on the Project for Public Transport Network and a First Priority Line in the Phnom Penh Metropolitan Area was held and chaired by H.E Governor KEP Chuk Tema in the Capital Hall in the afternoon of February 14, 2012.

The primary result of feasibility study of the project was presented by SYSTRA represented by Mr. Antoine Chèvre and Ms. Aurélie Jehanno about the study context, methodology, urban structure, demographics, socio-economic and transport modes. Based on their presentation, the French experts had primarily summarized that Phnom Penh is at a turning point due to demographic growth, mobility boom and a steady economic growth which caused to complicated traffic flow and it is necessary to have a proper public transport system according to current situation. Moreover, the year 2030 will be the demographic maturity threshold according to the National Institution of Statistics. The study team was mainly focused on some significant routes such as: Monivong Blvd., Monireth, Russian, NR 5, NR 2, NR 1 and Chaom Chao Roundabout which were linked from suburban areas to urban zones. However, the development of Phnom Penh had been gradually done based on the Capital’s Master Plan; thus the study team was thinking only on existing roads. Furthermore, in order to form up a prior line, there should be a public transport system via public bus to facilitate passengers from other provinces and suburban districts. During that meeting, the study team had also presented the sample electronic trains such as: monorails and trams being used in some cities over the globe with high ability and were the big public transport modes to travel more than 60,000 passengers within a short period of time and different directions.

Mentioning in the meeting, H.E Governor had expressed his profound appreciation to the SYSTRA Study team for their effort to reach their primary report for the Capital Hall. Based on the study, we have known that Phnom Penh surely required a urgent public transport system. H.E Governor had also appealed to all relevant agencies and departments to cooperate with SYSTRA and JICA experts for the detail study aiming to facilitate the Project could proceed effectively and could get a good conclusion which would be agreed by all related bodies and at least within the year of 2012, the Capital Hall would establish a city bus system if the investment proposal would be evaluated.