King Monivong’s reign was a period that Cambodia had first begun a policy of constructions. In 1928, a French company, Grands Travaux de Marseille (GTM), had been contracted to begin pumping sands from the bottom of Tonle Sap River to fill up Decho lake and other lakes in the city. The year of 1929 also seen a construction of a steel Preah Monivong Bridge. In 1932, the first railway tracts and stations from Phnom Penh to Battambang had been commissioned. The Boulevard Miche, now renamed Blvd.Preah Monivong had also been constructed.
 | In 1935, the Grand Market, now called Phsar Thom Thmey Market, was built. And in 1939, Verdun Avenue, now renamed Blvd. J. Nerhu and Ave. Preah Sihanouk was built. In 1939, the population of Phnom Penh City was about 108,000 people, and the population of the whole of Cambodia was about 3,000,000 people. Phnom Penh during the reign of H.M. King and Prince Norodom Sihanouk : 1941-1970 and 1993-2004 Phnom Penh under the period of Sihanouk’s rule had seen the expansion and the constructions of many modern infrastructures. |
The City’s population had also grown dramatically. The city’s population had grown to 111,000 in 1942. By 1950 it had grown to 354,000 and 355,000 in 1958. By 1962, the population of Phnom Penh City reached 394,000. The city had been expanded and many infrastructures had been built. In 1958, the Blvd. Mao Tse Tung was constructed. And in 1961, the city had expanded and Tuol Kork, a new flashy modern suburb, was constructed. |
 | Other infrastructures had also been built during this period. The International Olympic Stadium was built in 1963. In 1964, Tonle Bassac Theater and a Casino, now renamed the Cambodiana Sofitel Hotel, were constructed. A railway line from Phnom Penh to Kompong Som (Sihanoukville) was also commissioned in 1964. And the International Airport of Pochentong was also built. And in 1966, the Sangkum Reah Niyum Bridge, now renamed the Cambodia-Japan Friendship Bridge, was built with funds provided by Japan. Many tertiary institutions such as the Sangkum Reastr Niyum University, |
The Khmer-Soviet Institute of Technology, Royal Phnom Penh University, the Institute of Foreign Languages and many more were constructed during this period. Gardens and parks were constructed and beautified. Phnom Penh City in the 1960s was called the Pearl of Asia. Phnom Penh during the Khmer Republic of Marshall Lon Nol: 1970-1975 |
 | Phnom Penh from 1970 onward had not seen much developments due to the Cambodian civil war. The original population of Phnom Penh City of 900,000 had swelled to over 2,000,000 at the end of the war in 1975 because of war refugees from the countryside. On the contrary, many infrastructures had been destroyed by fighting and shells. In 1973, the Khmer Rouge mined Chroy Changvar Bridge two times which eventually destroyed it. |
| Phnom Penh during the Khmer Rouge Reign of Terror: 1975-1979 The Khmer Rouge took power on 17th April 1975 and immediately began to evacuate whole population out of the city. |
 | In three days, a city with a population of 2,000,000 had been reduced to a population of a few Khmer Rouge officials. Many infrastructures and buildings and part of the city had been significantly destroyed. After the Vietnamese troops toppled the Khmer Rouge on 5th January 1979, the population began to return to Phnom Penh. As of 1998, |
The population of Phnom Penh City had numbered to 862,000 people, including 149,000 families. In 2009, the population of Phnom Penh is estimated to number more than a million out of a total country’s population of approximately 14,000,000 |
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