Siem Reap province

THE Apsara Authority has decided to postpone implementation of a ban on buses containing more than 12 seats within Angkor Thom, and an official said yesterday that the body hoped to discuss the issue at length with the Tourist Transport Association.

Earlier this month, Chrun Sophal, the body’s communications director, said the ban would go into effect on August 1. He said yesterday that the deadline had been delayed, though he could not provide a new date.

“We will implement it in the future,” he said.

The Tourism Department at the Apsara Authority found that 15,000 vehicles entered the Angkor Wat temple complex each day in 2008, the last year for which statistics are available. Of those, about 900 were minibuses containing between 12 and 35 seats.

An official at the department who declined to be named said an estimated 90 percent of those vehicles entered Angkor Thom.

Chrun Sophal said the ban on buses with more than 12 seats was necessary so as to ensure the safety of the temples.

“We are concerned that those buses make the temples shake,” he said. “We want good order in the temples.”

Kanh Peou, the director of the TTA, said he had not heard of the pending ban, but that he believed the Apsara Authority should allow buses with up to 15 seats to enter Angkor Thom.