After the completion of the Kala Mountain Tunnel and the Yarlung River Bridge a few days ago, another major transportation project in Tibet Autonomous Region, the Lhasa to Nyingchi Highway, is expected to be opened to traffic by the end of this month, Xinhua reported.

As the main traffic lines completed, the Tibet highway transportation network continues to expand, playing an important role in promoting travel and economic and social development for the local residents.

By the end of last year, Tibet has a highway mileage of 75,000 kilometers, with 8,891 kilometers of high type and sub-high type pavement. Sixty of 74 counties were accessible by asphalt roads, and 690 townships were accessible by road, an access rate of 99.7 percent. 5,408 administrative villages were accessible by road, an access rate of 99.2 percent. The pre-existing local integrated transportation system continues to improve the overall traffic structure.

For half a century, the Qinghai-Tibet and Sichuan-Tibet highways have ended Tibet’s history of being inaccessible by road, bringing Tibet into closer contact with the inland and increasing economic exchanges. Tibet’s first highway, the Lhasa to Gonggar Airport Highway, opened to traffic in July 2011, filling the blank that there had been no highway in Tibet The Nyingchi to Medog County Highway officially opened to traffic on Oct. 31, 2013, which marked the realization of the "every county is accessible by road" goal, meaning that there were no more counties in China that were inaccessible by road.

The Lhasa to Nyingchi Highway is one of 226 key projects in the “12th Five-Year Plan”, and it is also a landmark project in Tibet.

The highway begins in Bayi Township in Nyingchi County, passes through the two cities of Nyingchi and Lhasa, four counties, and a dozen towns and villages, covering around 409.2 kilometers.

The main parts of the road have been completed up till now. Landscaping and the installation of traffic safety facilities, electricity and other subsidiary projects will be completed by Jul. 30.

Tashi Gyatso, director of the Tibet Autonomous Region Transportation Department, said that in recent years Tibet has been promoting region-wide roads, county access roads, border roads, and roads leading into Tibet, as well as roads along major economic lanes and the construction of border ports of entry. The road transportation network has been basically completed, with Lhasa as the center and the “three vertical, two horizontal, and six channels” as the main framework, linking with Sichuan and Yunnan in the east, with Xinjiang in the west, with Qinghai in the north, and connecting with India and Nepal in the south. The grade and driving conditions of highway continue to improve.

Over the years, the central government and the Tibet Autonomous region have continued to support transportation construction within Tibet, as well as the construction of an four-hour economic circle with Lhasa as the center and Shigatse, Lhoka, Nyingchi, and Nagqu as the radius.

The transportation layout is more practical due to the accelerated construction on the Nyingchi to the Menling Airport Highway, the Lhoka to Gonggar Airport Highway, the Chamdo to Pangda Airport Highway, the Ngari to Kunsha Airport Highway, and the Shigatse to Peace Airport Highway.

The central government and the local government of the Tibet Autonomous region are constructing a major transportation thoroughfare toward South Asia and continue to improve the transportation capacities between Sichuan and Tibet, Yunnan and Tibet, Xinjiang and Tibet, China and Nepal, and other external channels, in order to achieve the paving of national highways and major economic lanes.