(MENAFN- IANS) Lhasa, Dec 18 (IANS) A new expressway linking Lhasa, the capital of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, with the city of Shannan, which is known as the birthplace of the Tibetan civilization, opened to traffic on Wednesday, according to local traffic authorities.
The new Xizang S5 Expressway stretches 47.46 kilometers from Lhasa to Tsethang, located in the downtown area of Shannan. It decreases the driving distance between the two cities by 65 kilometres, reducing the time it takes to travel between the two locations to just one hour, according to the Lhasa municipal transportation bureau.
The project had an estimated total investment of 9.43 billion yuan (about 1.3 billion US dollars), with a two-way, four-lane design and a design speed of 80 kilometres per hour.
Bridges and tunnels make up 65 per cent of the whole route, Xinhua news agency reported.
The expressway will facilitate travel for people living along the route, and is expected to stimulate the development of the local tourism, agriculture and animal husbandry industries, promoting high-quality economic development in the region, the bureau said.
As of the first half of 2024, the total length of highways in Xizang reached 123,300 kilometres, including 1,196 kilometres of expressways. The total length of rural roads in the region is 93,000 kilometres.
Earlier this year, a high-grade highway linking the regional capital Lhasa and Xigaze, the region's second-largest city, was opened to public. The 245 km long four-lane highway cut down travel time between Lhasa and Xigaze from about six hours to three hours.
The highway is one section of the national highway that links the city of Ya'an in southwest China's Sichuan Province and Yecheng County in the Kashgar Prefecture of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
"The high-grade highway will serve as an important channel linking Lhasa and the west of Xizang. It will also play a crucial role in further optimising the regional road network structure, improving the national comprehensive transport channel, and facilitating the region's further opening up to South Asia," said an official of the regional transport department.
The high-grade highway marked another significant development in Xizang's transport after the 251-km railway line that links Lhasa and Xigaze was put into operation in 2014.
Xigaze, which boasts about 50 per cent of Xizang's highland barley production, is known as the "granary of Xizang."
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