According to the ongoing first session of the 10th Tibet People's Political Consultative Conference held in Lhasa, the newly-built highway numbered 2,068.568 km in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) in 2012.

Cyclists are riding on the wide asphalt road. [Photo/China Tibet Online]

By the end of 2012, the total distance of the highway in TAR has amounted to 65,200 km, including 5,618.20 km national highway, 6,336.66 km provincial highway, 12,689.41 km county road, 16,195.48 km township road, 2,144.22 km village road and 2,893.84 km of accommodation highway.

In addition, there are altogether 6,452 highway bridges with 170,090.79 linear meters as well as the maintained road of 57,549 km.

By the end of 2012, all seven cities, 60 counties, 691 townships and 5072 villages in Tibet had been covered with asphalt road.

Among all the 257,800 vehicles in the whole region, there are 20,000 commercial vehicles to operate 365 passenger transport routes.

Photo shows the bridge highway in the mountains near Ranwu Lake. [Photo/China Tibet Online]

So far, 9.705 billion yuan (about US$1.56 billion) of fixed-asset investment in transportation infrastructure has been completed, increased by 20.60 percent.

Among all the investment, 4.521 billion yuan (about $0.73 billion) has been invested into the rural road construction, covering 411 villages with highways and 15 towns with asphalt roads.

Altogether 772 million yuan (about $124 million) has been regulated to launch the construction of highway to temples; and therefore, 1,810.79km highway leading to temples has been completed. There are 59 highway projects under construction, 31 contuning projects, 28 newly-commenced projects and 11 completed projects.