Rural roads in Tibet exceed 90,000 km

LHASA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region has built or renovated rural roads totaling 38,200 km since 2016, bringing the total length of rural roads in the plateau region to more than 90,000 km by the end of 2021, transportation authorities said Thursday.

From 2016 to 2021, the region poured 94.1 billion yuan (about 14.7 billion U.S. dollars) into more than 3,000 rural road construction projects, Feng Zhenzhong, an official with the regional department of transport, told a press conference.

During this period, 280 townships and 2,974 villages had been equipped with hardened roads. At present, all the 74 county-level areas have passenger bus lines, with 500 townships, or 73 percent of the region's total, enjoying passenger transportation services, Feng added.

More than 27,000 farmers and herders have been employed as rural road maintenance workers, with some 97 million yuan granted as subsidies for them.

Tibet has a vast land mass, harsh natural environment and poor transport connectivity due to historical reasons. The region has seen accelerated development in rural road construction and transportation in farming and pastoral areas over the past years.