At the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Transport Work Conference and the Region's Transport System Party Conduct and Clean Government Work Conference held on February 2, it was learned that this year Inner Mongolia will keep pace with the building of a strong transport nation, with emphasis on doing well in three areas: "improving the transport infrastructure network, advancing the development of a modern comprehensive transport system, and enhancing the modern capacity and level of industry governance," so as to provide strong support and guarantees for securing a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.
Bai Zhi, Director of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Department of Transport, introduced that this year Inner Mongolia will complete 70 billion yuan in highway construction investment, add 364 kilometers of expressways open to traffic for the year, and reconstruct 1,600 kilometers of national and provincial trunk highways; newly build and reconstruct 5,000 kilometers of rural and pastoral area roads, complete hardened-road access for 100 villages affected by administrative village mergers and abolitions, implement 2,400 kilometers of safety life protection projects on township roads and above, and reconstruct 148 dangerous bridges; and within the year build 1,000 kilometers of resource roads, tourism roads, and industrial roads.
This year, Inner Mongolia's transport sector will focus on eight tasks: solidly advancing supply-side structural reform; resolutely fighting and winning the battle against poverty through transport; intensifying efforts to advance key reforms; deeply advancing the building of law-based transport; firmly implementing the innovation-driven development strategy; solidly advancing the building of quality transport and green transport; raising the level of safe production development; and comprehensively strengthening Party building.
Optimizing and improving the highway transport infrastructure network is an important element. Inner Mongolia will accelerate the building of the main expressway framework and promote interconnectivity between provinces and between the eastern and western parts of the autonomous region; gradually increase the proportion of national and provincial trunk highways at Grade II and above; enhance the supporting and safeguarding capacity of highway construction for national defense, ports, and the development of border economic belts, striving to achieve by 2020 access to high-grade highways for all ports, access to expressways or Grade I highways for key ports, and connection of border national highways with Grade II and Grade III highways; create ecological tourism scenic highways suited to Inner Mongolia's characteristics, gradually forming a "ten loops and twelve branches" tourism trunk highway network with national and provincial trunk highways as the main framework; and, in alignment with the strategy of building a strong transport nation, launch research on the modernization of transport in the autonomous region.
It is understood that in 2017 Inner Mongolia completed 70.23 billion yuan in transport infrastructure construction investment, added 1,189 kilometers of expressways and 378 kilometers of Grade I highways, achieved asphalt (cement) road access for all eligible gacha (villages), and reached a village access rate of 99.8%.