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Highway Construction to Be Sped up in West China
To accelerate the infrastructure construction in western regions is of great importance in the national transportation development in future. Sources from the Ministry of Communications (MOC) said the government is expected to invest some 700 to 800 billionn yuan in the highway construction of 350 thousand kilometer long in western regions in the coming ten years.
Zhang Chunxian, Vice Minister of the Communications told the reporter that the central government introduced a series of preferential policies to support the construction of communication infrastructure in west China last October. In addition, MOC will spend no less than 49.3 billion yuan or some 52 percent of the total investment from MOC in highway construction. Meanwhile, the number of project investment will be increased and the percentage of the fund for project subsidies to be raised by 30 to 40 percent, particularly in Tibet, Qinghai and Guizhou. Some 70 percent of investment for the national open-to-traffic project will be given to rural areas in western regions. As expected, some one billion yuan will be dedicated to scientific research in the said project. Moreover, investment of any form (including foreign investment) will be welcomed.
According to the plan, the highway construction in west China will fall into three phases: construct national artery highways, upgrade regional ones and finish open-to-traffic in rural areas in the following ten years. It will witness a notable improvement by 2010. Then it requires another ten years to fulfil the network construction in western regions and the area will see it to be developed into a modernized highway network in the middle of the century.
China Invests Heavily in Highways
China has made fast progress in highway construction this year, especially in the vast western areas, according to the Ministry of Communications.
A sum of 172.6 billion yuan (US$20.9 billion) was invested in highway projects in China in the first ten months this year, the ministry said.
By PD Online staff member Yin Zhili
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