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.
