Chinese-built bridge opens in Cambodia's capital

[geovalin]

PHNOM PENH (Kyodo) -- A new Chinese-built bridge in Cambodia's capital opened for public use on Thursday, having taken about three years to complete at a cost of $27.5 million.

The 719-meter "friendship bridge," which spans the Tonle Sap River, is now used by people traveling into Phnom Penh, while an adjacent 710-meter Japanese-built friendship bridge is for those leaving the city.

At an inauguration ceremony, Prime Minister Hun Sen thanked China for extending Cambodia assistance needed to build the new bridge, which is expected to ease traffic congestion in the capital.

Construction of the bridge, called Chroy Changvar II, was funded by a preferential buyer's credit loan from the China Exim Bank.

The adjacent Japanese bridge, called Chroy Changvar I, was originally built in the mid-1960s but it was badly damaged amid the country's civil war in the mid-1970s. Reconstructed at a cost of $23.2 million, it reopened for use in 1994.

source: http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/International-Relations/Chinese-built-bridge-opens-in-Cambodia-s-capital