Over 90 pct of work on Chinese invested expressway in Cambodia completed: minister

PHNOM PENH, April 26 (Xinhua) -- More than 90 percent of the construction work on the Chinese invested Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway has been completed, Cambodia's Transport Minister Sun Chanthol said on Tuesday.

The construction of the 190-km long and 24.5-meter wide expressway began in March 2019.

As of Friday, the completed construction had reached 90.95 percent and would be ready for trial use in July 2022, he told reporters while leading a group of 300 students at the Techo Sen Institute of Public Works and Transport to visit the project.

Invested by the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), the expressway links the capital city of Phnom Penh and the deep sea port province of Preah Sihanouk in the country's southwestern part.

Chanthol said the road will be open to traffic for free for the first month, after which 12 dollars will be charged for small cars per single trip in the first year.

He added that the normal cost of traveling on this road is 10 cents per kilometer for small cars, so the usual price is about 19 dollars.

The Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway, the first expressway project in the southeast Asia country and the most important strategic route in the kingdom, will reduce travel time between Phnom Penh and Preah Sihanouk province from five hours to two hours.

It is one of the Cambodia-China cooperation projects under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.