Plans to build an expressway linking Phnom Penh to a new international airport are being delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The General Director of local conglomerate Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation (OCIC) said the project has not yet been finalised and would take some time. Touch Samnang said last week that because of 19 Coronavirus cases, the company’s work activities have been cut in half, delaying the new flyover and plans to build a new development on Nora Island. OCIC President Neak Oknha Pung Kheav Se said recently that the company is studying the plans to build an expressway from the new airport in Kandal to Phnom Penh, with the first phase scheduled to begin construction this year. “This expressway project is not a highway like the road to Kampong Som, but a flyover with a total length of 21.5 kilometres (km) and two phases,” he said. The first phase is about 10 km long passing through Hun Sen Boulevard and Street 271, all the way from the Kbal Thnal junction to National Road 2. The second 11 km stretch will connect National Road 2 to the new airport. The project will cost about $400 million, with the first phase likely to begin this year. It is scheduled to be completed shortly after the airport is finished in 2023. The company says the new expressway will allow drivers to reach speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour between the city and the airport. The Ministry of Public Works and Transport is also studying the feasibility of building a railway connecting Phnom Penh to the new airport. The new Phnom Penh International Airport project will cost more than $1.5 billion, built on an area of 2,600 hectares. The airport will be able to accommodate 15 million passengers a year at the end of the first phase and 30 million after the second stage.