PHNOM PENH: The Minister of Public Works and Transport, Senior Minister Sun Chanthol, has once again asked for the people's understanding regarding the 20 km of damage on National Road No. 3 from Veal Renh to Kampot province.

Senior Minister Sun Chanthol said, during a Thursday morning, 27 October, press conference on the achievements made by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport over the past five years, that 34 km of the 54 km road from Veal Renh to Kampot is still in good quality, but the other 20 km has become very damaged due to the shallow quality of the dirt which has disintegrated.

He said that in the future, the Ministry of Public Works will repair this road by pouring 5 km of underground pillars and an additional 20 cm of concrete over a length of 15 km to prevent the road from collapsing again.

Many questions were asked to the Ministry of Public Works on whether it is possible to make this road long-lasting in the future. To these questions, Senior Minister Sun Chanthol replied, "There are possibilities and techniques, but at this current time there is no budget. If we take the money for temporary repairs, it will cost millions of dollars without getting anything done in the next six months. We do not want to destroy the national budget that the Ministry of Economy and relevant institutions are trying to raise."

He said the Ministry of Public Works and Transport has now given China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) the role of temporary maintenance of the road for free. He added that the Ministry is trying to collect funds from abroad to build this road to meet the highest technical standards, and it hopes the road can be repaired in 2023.