The Ministry of Public Works and Transport has publicly urged the companies that won the contracts to upgrade National Road 2 and National Road 22 to speed up construction and complete it on time without compromising quality.

A meeting was held to review the progress of the improvement projects on August 17 attended by Heng Rathpiseth, director of the department at the ministry; Ken Ratha, head of the ministry's administration and finance general department; Heang Vutha, director-general of the technical department at the ministry and others with Minnie Chey, country director of the Korea Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) for Cambodia.

Rathpiseth said at the meeting that having listened to reports and discussions with the stakeholders, they were able to identify the relevant problems. Those present at the meeting also reviewed and advised the construction company and the technical consulting company to continue to push for the implementation of four points of interest.

He said that the first point is that the construction company must carry out the work of repairing and maintaining the roads properly according to the contract in order to ensure the safety of motorists and to avoid any accidents.

Second, the construction company must carry out all of the work according to the scope of the project as stated in the contract correctly and on time.

Third, the technical consulting company must review the cost of the actual additional workload and submit it to the project management unit (PMU) by the end of this week.

Fourth, the construction company and the technical consulting company have to cooperate with local authorities and all stakeholders to address the remaining impacts and prevent overweight transport as mandated by law.

Rathpiseth also urged a series of meetings to review the progress of work and push for the implementation of the project so that it can be completed on time, efficiently and at a high level of quality.

The construction on the stretches of National Roads 2 and 22 started in February 2020 and was scheduled to be completed in April 2022, but the projects have been delayed due to problems the ministry is now attempting to address through these meetings.