Roads in Tibet see major expansion

The Tibet autonomous region invested 94 billion yuan ($15 billion) in the construction of rural roads during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period, the region's traffic and transportation department said recently.

The money was used in more than 3,000 road construction projects. Some 38,000 kilometers of rural roads were either built or renovated during the period, thanks to the heavy investment. Tibet's highway network surpassed 90,000 km as of the end of 2021.

Between 2016 and 2020, the region's 280 townships and 2,974 villages — 94 percent and 77 percent, respectively — were linked by paved roads.

Along with the upgrading of roads, the region has also expanded passenger bus service in its rural areas. Currently, the region has 317 rural passenger lines, with 369 shuttle buses in operation in rural areas. All of the region's 74 counties are linked with shuttle buses.

Dawa Ngodrub, Party secretary of the regional traffic and transportation department, said the continuous improvement of road conditions has greatly fueled the process of building beautiful villages and promoted tourism development and the extension of the logistics industry.

"The development of transportation also has provided opportunities for rural farmers and herdsmen to participate in the process of building and maintaining roads and developing logistics. They have also supervised the process and benefited from the rural road construction," Dawa Ngodrub said.