| Tibet
highway renovation to be completed in 2004 (11/12/2002)
The fourth major renovation of the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, one of
the major roads linking "the Roof of the World" to other
parts of China, is expected to be completed by June 2004.
The project, its fourth major renovation since opening to traffic
in the 1950s, is expected to cost a total of 1.17 billion yuan (US$140
million), official sources with the Ministry of Communications said.
The renovation, which has been progressing smoothly since it began
about a year ago, was needed to accommodate increased traffic due
to the ongoing construction of the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the sources
said.
The most important part of the work was the upgrading of the section
from Golmud in Qinghai to Lhasa in Tibet, involving new asphalt
layers and reinforcement of bridges and culverts.
The 1,937-kilometer highway now accounts for 85 percent of the
cargo traffic in and out of Tibet and 90 percent of the passenger
traffic, according to official statistics.
Over the past decades, China has spent 5.884 billion yuan (US$700
million) on the maintenance of the highway, the sources said.
(Xinhua)
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