It is reported that State Council has reviewed and passed the National Expressway Network Plan last December. According to the plan, China will build a crisscross network of expressways in the next 30 years, forming an expressway network in which state capital is connected with provincial capitals, provincial capitals are linked, major regions and cities are connected and key counties and cities are covered.

During the 2005 China International Logistics Week held in Shanghai from May 18 to 21, Feng Zhenglin, vice minister of Communications said that upon the completion of the expressway network, it will take people in the medium-sized cities with a population of 200.000 averagely 30 minutes to get to the expressway in eastern regions, one hour for people in central regions and two hours for people in western areas. The speed and flexibility of transport will be greatly improved, and the advantage of transport benefits will be brought into full play. With a total length of 85,000 km, the network connects all the national major traffic hubs, including 67 railway hubs, 50 waterway hubs and 140-plus highway hubs. Meanwhile, it covers more than 1 billion people and the GDP from the regions it radiates will account for 85 percent of the nation's total.

In terms of waterway transport, Feng noted that national coastal ports will add 350 new sea berths and construct 10,000 km grade-3 navigable inland channel and 30,000 km grade-5 sea-route with the total handling capacity of 1.9 billion tons. The river courses in the upper reaches of Yangtze River that hinder the transport have been improved and the navigation in the trunk lines have also been bettered. The construction work of port groups in the Yangtze River Delta Region, Pearl River Delta Region as well as Pan-Bohai Sea region and a large number of high-quality channels will also be further perfected.

By People's Daily Online