Officials in Shanxi Province welcomed private investment from home and abroad into the region's expressway consctruction projects, domestic media reported.

The remarks by Duan Jianguo, head of Shanxi Provincial Transport Department, came after seven State-owned coal enterprises agreed to invest 30 billion yuan to construct expresway in the province.

The firms' investment will help fill the capital deficit of 60 billion yuan as the province planned to build 1,000 kilometers of expressway in 2012, said Duan, adding that there is no monomopy of the field.

The coal-rich province is speeding up expressway network expansion to relieve transportation pressure and plans to have a total of 6,300 kilometers of expressways by the end of 2015.

Coals transported outside Shanxi by roads amounted to 120 million tons in 2011, an increase of 25.7 percent over a year earlier.