North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region’s government plans to construct a 2,000 km expressway and first-class highway of 1,500 km in the next two years, 2014 to 2015.

According to the regional government’s plan, up to the end of 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), the expressways or first-class highways will reach every banner (an Inner Mongolian administrative division equals to a county) or county in the region, and the coverage rate of asphalt or cemented roads in the region’s administrative villages are expected to 70 percent. Then within two more years, by the end of 2017, a relatively sophisticated roads network will have been developed in Inner Mongolia, with expressways amounting to 6,500 km while first-class highways will cover 7,500 km.

In 2014, Inner Mongolia is to invest 65 billion yuan ($10.45 billion) on highways. The Linbai section project (Linhe district in Inner Mongolia to Baigeda located on the border between Inner Mongolia and Gansu province) of the Jingxing Highway (Beijing to Urumqi in Xinqing Uygur autonomous region) was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission and will be launched in July with a planned investment of 14 billion yuan this year. The whole project, which will stretch 936 km after completion, is likely to cost 35.6 billion yuan in total.

In addition to the Linbai section, there are three other highway projects in Inner Mongolia which will kick off this year.