Next 20 Years See Chongqing to Invest 60 Billion Yuan for Building Expressways
Chongqing Municipality, Southwest of China, has recently adjusted its blueprint for the construction of trunk highways in the next 20 years. The new scheme defines that the investment of highway construction in future totals 60 billion yuan, an increase of 17 billion yuan over the former scheme mapped out in the early days when the city was brought under the direct jurisdiction of the central government.
During the three years since Chongqing became a municipality, every year has seen it identified as the "Year of Transportation Construction". The municipality has invested a total of 17.5 billion yuan for it, brought 1,800 kilometers of high-grade highways into completion, an increase of 1,200 kilometers over that in its former days. Since the plan for great development in west China was carried out, the municipality has decided to step up the expressway construction. Peng Jiankang, Deputy Director of Chongqing Municipal Transport Bureau, says that according to the new scheme, the expressway network is to reach 5,000 kilometers in the next 20 years. Of the highways to be built, freeways will come up to 1,000 kilometers with the first grade and second grade highways to be of 600 and 3,400 kilometers respectively.
There are six sections of highways under construction now with the Chongqing sections of the Shanghai-Chengdu and Baotou-Beihai freeways as the key projects. Of the six highways, the Chongqing-Changshou highway is to open at the end of the month. The Shanghai-Chengdu highway, a main road leading from the east of Chongqing to coastal areas, is expected to open to traffic in 2003. Another main road from Chongqing via Qijiang County, Guizhou to Beihai, Guangxi, has also been brought under construction. During the tenth Five-year Plan Period, a road from Jiangjin to Guizhou is to set off too.
Presently, it takes three days to drive from Chongqing to Beihai, the nearest sea-port whereas by 2005 when a high-speed transport system on land is comes into being, it will only need eight hours to cover the distance between Chongqing and Beihai.
