Blueprints for a Siem Reap construction project
to build or fix 38 roads totalling 98.34km are due to be unveiled on September
23. The project is scheduled to be completed in late 2021.
The deadline was set on Wednesday by the
Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) and led by Tea Banh, the chairman
of the inter-ministerial committee in charge of the project.
The meeting was attended by Minister of Land
Management, Urban Planning and Construction Chea Sophara, MPWT Minister Sun
Chanthol and senior officials from the Ministry of National Defence.
Banh advised the task force in charge of
designing the roads to reach a technical consensus to ensure that the
construction is high quality and sustainable.
A Facebook post of Prime Minister Hun Sen on
September 4 announced that the government will spend $150 million to rebuild
the 38 roads in Siem Reap.
“Although our nation is facing Covid-19, it
doesn’t affect development. The big and small roads planned to be built in this
town will help raise the living standards of residents. The roads will also
help stimulate economic growth,” Hun Sen said.
He said he would preside over the opening
ceremony of the construction and said late next year, people will see clean
roads on the land of Angkor.
Hun Sen also thanked the contributions of all
institutions. He said they didn’t waste their money because the government
saved more than $600 million to develop the country.
Banh said at the meeting that sewage systems,
road pavements, pedestrian crossings, bicycle lanes, parking lots, public
lighting, traffic signs, CCTV, water purifier tanks, garden construction and
tree plantation would be studied.
“The restoration of this infrastructure is to
turn an unprecedented new page in the roads that cross Siem Reap.
“This leads the government’s attention – to
transform a town of diverse cultures into a tourist attraction with more
investments in line with our development policy,” he said.
MPWT spokesman Heang Sotheayuth said on
Thursday that all members of the inter-ministerial committee and relevant sides
will take up plans and detailed blueprints for discussion at the September 23
meeting.
“The meeting will be held a day after the Pchum
Ben festival, and we will ask permission from the senior leadership to open a
construction site soon,” he said.