The Phnom Penh municipal government has started a two-month project to replace and add a few hundred street signs across the city with what officials say are superior models, starting with Norodom Boulevard and going as far south as the Ministry of Interior.
Phnom Penh deputy governor Khuong Sreng said yesterday that City Hall planned to replace the current signs in stages in an effort to improve the capital’s aesthetics and to help tourists navigate.
“If we don’t do it, some will ask why we don’t do something. And when we do it, they still oppose it,” he said, when asked whether the project was necessary. He declined to say how much the work would cost.
City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche, who said he did not know the cost of the project, explained that the first phase would involve replacing existing signs and the second phase would be installing additional ones.
“In some places the poles were damaged and in some places there are not enough,” he said.
Hun Rina, chief technician for CamDeg, the company making and installing the signs, said the firm began replacing signs on Norodom on October 28. According to the current plan, he said, a total of 250 signs will be installed by the end of December along the central streets of Kampuchea Krom, Preah Sihanouk, Preah Monivong, Mao Tse Toung, Preah Norodom and Preah Sisowath.
“The new pole is thicker and bigger with Khmer styling,” he said. “When we are driving at night, the signs have reflective material so we can see the letters.”
Mr. Rina said he did not know the cost of the project, either.
(Additional reporting by Peter Ford)
