Phnom Penh Municipality announced to postpone fining unlicensed three-wheeled vehicles, known Tuk-tuk, until the end of this year. The decision was made after a meeting between municipal officials and driver representatives Monday at the City Hall.

In the meeting, drivers’ representatives asked authorities to allow them to drive along Norodom Boulevard south of the Independence Monument to Preah Monivong Bridge, but the request was rejected by City Hall.

License plates for Tuk-tuk drivers cost around US$30.

The Phnom Penh Post quoted Chreang Sophan, Phnom Penh deputy governor, as saying that “we will postpone the fining of tuk-tuk drivers without license plates until December 30. After that, we will start to punish them again.”

The Municipality issued a notice on October ordering traffic policemen to confiscate all three-wheeled vehicles without proper license plates. This decision caused drivers made demonstration by hundreds of tuk-tuk drivers on Norodom Boulevard earlier this month.

Vorn Pao, president of the Independent Democracy of Informal Economic Association, said that association has more than 1,300 tuk-tuk drivers, but that only 30 of these members had received licenses so far due to the lack of speed in processing drivers’ document, reported the Daily.

Nhem Saron, director of the Municipal Department of Public Works and Transport, said drivers must all respect the Land Traffic Law. “We did allow [tuk-tuks] to drive along Norodom Boulevard, but they did not respect” the law, he said, according to the Post.