The Ministry of Public Works and Transport has announced a new schedule for providing mobile vehicle inspection services in the provinces on January 2, urging people to bring their vehicles to be inspected at the designated locations in a timely manner.

The ministry said that the mobile vehicle inspection services in the provinces is an attempt to bring services closer to the people to increase convenience and save the time and money, while also contributing to a reduction in travel and traffic accidents.

“All vehicle owners can take their vehicles for inspection at the nearest provincial Department of Public Works and Transport according to schedule and on time,” the ministry stated.

The ministry has set the time and location for inspections in each province from January through December of 2022. Vehicle owners can take their vehicles for inspection at those locations during working hours on the designated inspection days.

According to the ministry about 400,000 vehicles underwent inspection last year.

Department of Land Transport director-general Chhuon Vorn told The Post on January 2 that mobile vehicle inspection services played an important role by providing the ministry’s services to people in a convenient manner because some provinces did not yet have their own official technical inspection centres.

“Mobile vehicle inspection plays an important role in the plans made by Minister of Transport and Public Works Sun Chanthol. We are doing mobile inspections at locations that don’t have permanent facilities providing them and we have a clear schedule for which provinces will have mobile teams available on which days, so people should check the schedule and be ready,” he said.

According to the 2021 annual report from the ministry obtained by The Post on January 2, from 1990 to 2021, a total of 5,406,741 vehicles were registered in the Kingdom, including 432,255 newly registered vehicles in 2021.

The report stated that in the past 31 years, a total of 1,869,279 Cambodians have received driver’s licenses. In 2021, the ministry issued new driver’s licenses for 84,117 people.

It added that from 1990 to 2021, a total of 2,979,479 vehicles were inspected, including 405,351 vehicles last year, which was a decrease of about 10 per cent compared to 2020, which had 452,854 vehicles inspected.

Asia Injury Prevention Foundation country director Kim Panga said on January 2 that vehicle inspections are nothing new for Cambodia, but the ministry providing these services more conveniently to people in remote or provincial areas is.

“I support and encourage the government in their attempts to make inspection services more widely available and convenient on a more frequent basis across the country,” he said.