The government of Tibet Autonomous Region plans to invest 11 billion yuan to build a trunk highway network in the next five years to greet the implementation of China's strategy to develop the western region.

The fund will be used to build and improve roads with a total length of 4,700 km, which will bring the total mileage of highways in the region to 27,000 km.

As the region has no access to water and railway transport services, highways play a vital role in local economic development.

In the past five years, the region built 2,886 km of roads at a cost of 4 billion yuan, 2.3 times the previous five years' sum. To date, 80 percent of towns and 60 percent of villages in the region are now linked by the highway network.

Highways handle 80 percent of the cargo transport in the region with the remainder covered by air service.