China needs to build another one million kilometers of highway
by 2020 and upgrade its existing network to cater to transport
needs, said vice minister of Communications Feng Zhenglin on
Friday.
Passenger and freight transport via highways at that time are
expected to be 149 percent and 40 percent more respectively than in
2006, he said.
By 2020, it is forecast that there will be an estimated 36.5
billion passenger trips and 20 billion tons of goods moving along
the country's highways annually, the official said at a symposium
on highway construction in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province.
China currently has 3.457 million kilometers of highway, about
36 kilometers for every 100 square kilometers of area.
However, Feng said nearly half of the country's highways, or
more than 1.6 million kilometers of road, were of low level and
needed upgrading. At the end of this year, the country will have an
estimated 53,000 kilometers of expressways.
China spent 623.1 billion yuan (US$21.8 billion) in highway
construction in 2006 and is expected to spend 660 billion yuan this
year.
(Xinhua News Agency November 17, 2007)