A week after government officials ordered Vattanac Properties to halt work on a construction site causing damage to a string of colonial-era buildings along Phnom Penh’s Sisowath Quay, representatives from the company arrived at the scene yesterday to inspect the affected buildings.
Three Vattanac employees, including one architect, examined the most extensively damaged building, No 377, the closest building to the Vattanac site. The affected block is located between streets 178 and 184.
“After I measure the [dimensions] of the building, I will turn it into a graphic and pass it to the specialists so they can figure out the renovation,” said the company architect, who declined to reveal his name.
The representatives took measurements of the building, sketched out the evident damage and took photographs.
“[The engineers] can make a decision on how to renovate it,” said another Vattanac representative, who also declined to state his name.
District, municipal and land ministry level officials yesterday remained mum about plans to resolve the issue, declining to comment on its specifics.
Sitha Mak, owner and designer at Lady Penh Designs, located a few doors away from the Vattanac site, said she has been left in the dark about what the company and the government are planning in terms of compensation and rehabilitation to the riverfront shop she leases.
“We had a new crack on the outside of the store on Friday,” she said. “We will wait for the company to give the answer, but when they came [yesterday], nobody told me about it. All the people here are waiting for answers.”
Daun Penh district deputy governor Sok Penvuth said last week that local authorities would have assessed the damage by today in order to prepare for compensation talks.
(Additional reporting by Philip Heijmans)
