T RANSPORT Minister Ing Kieth (above, second from left) made a first-hand

inspection on Sept 18 of the progress being made on Route 76 - the 135km road

linking two of Cambodia's most remote provinces, Kratie and

Mondulkiri.

Route 76, through remote jungle and forest from Kratie's

Snoul district to the Mondulkiri capital Senmonorom, has been abandoned for

about twenty years.

The road is due to be officially reopened in early

1996.

It was originally built in the early 1960s but after years of war

was left totally destroyed and later overgrown by jungle, making it inaccessible

for any kind of transport. The government is paying the $200,000 required to

clear and grade the road and repair the 24 bridges destroyed along

it.

Roving Khmer Rouge still make the country the road passes through

dangerous and insecure, a situation Kieth said would change after the road is

finished and settlers start living there.

Kratie governor Nou Phoeung

said the road was vital as a link for locals to travel to the capital to sell

their produce. It presently takes them two full days to make the relatively

short trip.

"We cannot develop this area without having good roads,"

Phoeung said. He added that eight out of ten roads in Kratie and Mondulkiri had

been damaged, many because of heavy timber trucks during recent years.