Logo of Phnom Penh Post newspaper Phnom Penh Post - Ministry seeks $70 million for 20km stretch of National Road 3

Ministry seeks $70 million for 20km stretch of National Road 3

Content image - Phnom Penh Post
Motorists travel along the shoulder of National Road 3 on Tuesday. PUBLIC WORKS MINISTRY

Ministry seeks $70 million for 20km stretch of National Road 3

The Ministry of Public Works and Transport is raising funds to temporarily facilitate traffic on a heavily damaged 20km stretch of road from Kampot province to neighbouring Preah Sihanouk’s Veal Rinh commune while awaiting a concessional loan from Chinese entities. The stretch requires an estimated $60 to $70 million to be reconstructed entirely and in accordance with technical standards.

Public works minister Sun Chanthol said Cambodia had submitted a written letter to a “Chinese entity” requesting a concessional loan for the reconstruction.

“Prime Minister Hun Sen asked the Chinese entity to help with [finding] a concessional loan to build this 20km road, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance has written to the Chinese embassy to request a budget. We are waiting for the official budget from the Chinese … as a loan to build this road following technical standards,” he said.

He said that the ministry is “not indifferent” to the condition of the road and its maintenance while it was awaiting the loan, and has been looking for funding to repair it as a stopgap.

“Before we receive the loan, [we acknowledge] the road is significantly damaged and difficult to travel on, especially during the rainy season. National Road 4 [NR4] is widening, so there is congestion, which has caused some people to detour through NR3, leading to busy traffic on the road from Kampot to Veal Rinh,” he said.

“To solve this problem, I am trying to find a source of funding to facilitate traffic – not to a high standard, admittedly, but it is a temporary measure so that it will not be too difficult to travel on this 20km stretch of road until we find the funds to reconstruct it to a standard where it is strong and durable,” he said.

A study on reconstructing the road according to technical standards revealed that the project is estimated to cost between $60-to $70 million.

It showed that 5km of the stretch was revealed to have damaged foundations 18m deep, while 15km has been assessed to require reinforcement for its foundations.

“We needed the company to study this road to prevent it from collapsing again,” he said. “Once we have reconstructed the road according to technical standards, it will last for a long time.”

The road has already undergone maintenance works four times, he added, but the repairs were short-lived as a result of structural deficiencies stemming from the geography of the area not being properly studied by the ministry.

Additionally, the construction budget for the road at the time was “only about $20 million”, Chanthol said.

He added that the ministry has also studied the possibility of building a bypass or reconstructing the road entirely on a different plot of land, but conceded the latter was not possible because the area was surrounded by soft soil.

Chanthol also called on transportation companies not to overload their trucks – a notorious cause of road damage across the country – stressing that owners of overloaded vehicles could face “up to a year” in jail and “harsh” fines.

He said the ministry has seized “about 160” vehicles, of which more than 10 per cent were found to be overloaded, and has impounded them for one year with penalties issued.

The Kampot-Veal Rinh section of NR3 stretches 54km, 34km of which will be reconstructed through funding from the World Bank.

MOST VIEWED

  • Wing Bank opens new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004

    Wing Bank celebrates first anniversary as commercial bank with launch of brand-new branch. One year since officially launching with a commercial banking licence, Wing Bank on March 14 launched a new branch in front of Orkide The Royal along Street 2004. The launch was presided over by

  • Girl from Stung Meanchey dump now college grad living in Australia

    After finishing her foundational studies at Trinity College and earning a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Melbourne in 2022, Ron Sophy, a girl who once lived at the Stung Meanchey garbage dump and scavenged for things to sell, is now working at a private

  • Ministry using ChatGPT AI to ‘ease workload’; Khmer version planned

    The Digital Government Committee is planning to make a Khmer language version of popular artificial intelligence (AI) technology ChatGPT available to the public in the near future, following extensive testing. On March 9, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications revealed that it has been using the

  • Wat Phnom hornbills attract tourists, locals

    Thanks to the arrival of a friendly flock of great hornbills, Hour Rithy, a former aviculturist – or raiser of birds – in Kratie province turned Phnom Penh tuk tuk driver, has seen a partial return to his former profession. He has become something of a guide

  • Ministry orders all schools, public and private, to close for SEA Games

    From April 20 to May 18, all public and private educational institutions will be closed to maintain order and support Cambodia's hosting of the 32nd SEA Games and 12th ASEAN Para Games, said a directive from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport. Cambodia will host the

  • Almost 9K tourists see equinox sunrise at Angkor Wat

    Nearly 9,000 visitors – including 2,226 international tourists – gathered at Angkor Wat on March 21 to view the spring equinox sunrise, according to a senior official of the Siem Reap provinical tourism department. Ngov Seng Kak, director of the department, said a total of 8,726 people visited Angkor Wat to