China to step up rural highway construction

Aerial photo taken on Dec. 3, 2021 shows rural roads and the Guilin-Liucheng Expressway in Rongan County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Huang Xiaobang)

BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhua) -- China will promote rural highway construction and further improve the country's rural highway network this year, according to the Ministry of Transport.

Last year, the country's total investment in rural highways reached about 410 billion yuan (about 65 billion U.S. dollars). More than 160,000 kilometers of rural roads were reconstructed, data from the ministry showed.

While stabilizing efficient investment in rural highways, the country will step up efforts to inspect and control dangers in bridges and tunnels on rural roads and rebuild over 5,000 unsafe bridges to ensure the travel safety of rural residents.

Logistic systems will be further improved to expand coverage of express services in rural regions, said the ministry.