Families living on the construction site of a new sports stadium in Xaythany district started to relocate last weekend, after receiving compensation from the government.

The project, about 16 km south of Vientiane, covers 125 hectares of land in Dongsanghin, Khoknoy and Phonkham villages, home to 42 families, according to the Vientiane Land Management Authority.

The sports stadium is being built in preparation for the 2009 South East Asian Games, which Laos will host.

“People living on the land allocated for the stadium have cooperated with us because they are in favour of the project,” said the head of the authority, Mr Sounthon Silaphet, during a visit to the site last weekend.

The authority has provided 567 million kip (about US$59,000) in total to these families, and each will get 800 square metres of new land in Xaysomboun village, in the same district, Mr Sounthon said.

One family will receive about 15 million kip on average, which can be used to build a new house.

The new village already has roads and access to the main highway, a water supply and electricity, he said.

Mr Sounthon said he anticipates that all families will have relocated by the end of next week.

He said most of the families being relocated did not have any farmland in the development area, even though they had been living there for some time.

Th e stadium, costing more than US$100 million, is being built by a Chinese construction company with financial support from the Chinese government.

By MK. Vongsam-ang
(Latest Update October 29, 2007)