A controversial plan to relocate Sisophon bus station in Banteay Meanchey has been cancelled thanks to Prime Minister Hun Sen, according to Deputy Provincial Governor Ly Sary.

Hun Sen visited the town yesterday as part of his tour of the Kingdom’s 25 provinces, which began in July. While there, he gave the thumbs down to a plan proposed in February to move Sisophon’s bus station – a local transit hub that hosts 200 taxis and 40 to 50 buses a day – 20 kilometres out of town.

It was an unpopular proposal, with bus drivers and members of the station’s hundreds-strong army of vendors telling the Post when it was floated in February that it would reduce their profit margins. Eight months later, Hun Sen has announced his agreement, Sary said.

“Our prime minister told us we will not move this bus station because people depend on the buses for their livelihoods. I am not against him,” said Sary, who in February said only a minority were dissatisfied with the move.

“He told us that development in our province is not so fast that we need this plot of land to do something else with it.”

Nhem Sophal, a 27-year-old employee of Asia Link bus company in Banteay Meanchey, said he was indifferent to the announcement and that his concern was congestion in Sisophon town centre.

“I am neither for it or against it; I just want things to be more organised and no more traffic jams caused by the bus station being in the town centre,” Sophal said.