URUMQI  -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is planning to invest 3.5 billion yuan (US$512 million) this year in its rural highways, the regional transport department said Thursday.

Newly built expressway connecting Guozigou and Horgos, both are in Yili Kazak Autonomous prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, December 20, 2008. [ggj.xjjt.gov.cn]

The money will be used to build and upgrade 11,000 km highways in rural areas, enabling 80 towns to have access to asphalt roads and 400 villages to be connected in the highway network, the department said.

Xinjiang invested 3.2 billion yuan in rural highways last year, and about 2 million herdsmen and farmers benefited from that.

The region has invested 13.4 billion yuan in building and upgrading 55,000 km of rural highways during the past decade. However, many villages in this vast region still have no access to highways.

Xinjiang plans to spend another 120 billion yuan and build more than 50,000 km of highways in the coming five years.