Government Promises Road Repairs by 2003

Repairs to roads damaged by floods and mines are scheduled to be completed by 2003 and should carry broad benefits to travelers, said Kong Hean, general director for the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.

The repairs to the pitted Na­tional Roads 1, 5, 6 and 7—est­imat­ed to cost $100 million—have waited for as long as 20 years. To ensure they wait no long­er, construction companies will be fined if they fail to meet the 2003 deadline, Kong Hean said last week.

“We have to finish them as our promise to the people,” he added.

Kong Hean said he also was trying to find a loan to pay for a road from Poipet in Banteay Meanchey province to Siem Reap province. The money will likely come from the Asian De­velop­ment Bank, which has agreed in principle to fund the work, he said. The newly paved road will encourage more tourists to visit Cambodia and raise attendance at Angkor Wat, the government hopes.

“According to our study, we found that most tourists want to come to Cambodia by vehicle ra­ther than by flight,” Kong Hean said.

Plans for a road between Poipet and Banteay Meanchey province are expected to get financial help from the government of Thailand, Kong Hean said.

According to Keo Sen, chief at the Poipet checkpoint, 400 to 500 Thais cross the border into Poi­pet every day for business and to visit casinos. On weekends, as many as 1,000 cross the border.

But the long wait for road re­pairs has left some travelers bitter. Teacher Ang Ling said that he spends 30,000 riel (about $7.70) for a taxi ride from Battam­bang to Phnom Penh, then another 35,000 riel (about $9) to return to Siem Reap. “I paid all my salary for my travel to Phnom Penh to visit my relatives,” he said.

Phan Vy, a taxi driver who has dri­­­v­en between Battambang and Phnom Penh for six years, was skeptical that the repairs would come by 2003 as promised. Since 1996, he said, he has listened to gov­ernment promises that the awful road conditions would end “this year and the next year, but nothing happened” until this announcement.

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