On the morning of February 6, the 2018 Regional Transportation Work Conference was held at the Regional Department of Transport. Heads of transportation departments from various cities and prefectures in Tibet and leaders of relevant regional units attended the meeting.
At the meeting, Yongji, Deputy Party Secretary and Director of the Regional Department of Transport, introduced that in 2017 the Regional Department of Transport completed 56.9 billion yuan in transportation fixed asset investment, and all targets and tasks were successfully achieved. A total of 35 key highway construction projects were implemented, including 25 continued projects and 10 newly started projects, with 20 completed. Six expressways were completed and opened to traffic ahead of schedule, including the Shigatse Airport to Shigatse City, Lhasa to Nyingchi, Tsetang to Gonggar Airport, and the South Ring Road, West Ring Road, and North Ring Road of Lhasa; the control project of the Nagqu to Lhasa section of National Highway 109 and the expressway from Qamdo to Jiaka section of National Highway 214 started construction ahead of schedule; 8 national and provincial trunk line projects including the Qonggyai to Cona section of National Highway 560 started construction; and 21 projects including the Shigatse bypass section of National Highway 318 completed completion (handover) acceptance, maintaining a sound momentum in project construction. At the same time, 1,374 rural highway construction projects were arranged and implemented, with an investment of 42.243 billion yuan.
The next three years are a precious period of opportunity for achieving leapfrog development of transportation in Tibet. Yongji introduced that the regional transportation department should deeply advance the supply-side structural reform of transportation, focus on the transportation planning goals of the region's "13th Five-Year Plan," actively build a "3-hour economic circle" centered on Lhasa, strive to achieve high-grade national highways and a networked rural highway system, and use transportation as a pioneer to drive economic development, promote improvements in people's livelihood, and achieve inclusive benefits. By the end of the "13th Five-Year Plan," investment of 238.8 billion yuan will be completed, and the region's total highway mileage will exceed 110,000 kilometers.
Implement high-grade construction of access routes into and out of Tibet, accelerate preliminary work such as scheme research, survey, and design for high-grade construction of major access routes into and out of Tibet, including the Sichuan-Tibet route from Zhubalong to Bangda Military Station to Nyingchi section and the Dege to Qamdo section, the Yunnan-Tibet route from Mangkang to Gejie River section, the Qinghai-Tibet route from Golmud to Lhasa section, the South Asia land corridor from Lhasa via Shigatse to Gyirong section, and the Xinjiang-Tibet route from Lhaze via Shiquanhe to the Xinjiang-Tibet boundary section, and start construction in due course to achieve high-grade major access routes into and out of Tibet as early as possible.
Accelerate the coordinated development of rural transport. By 2020, the rate of townships (towns) with conditions having bus services will reach 100%, and the rate of administrative villages with passenger bus services will reach 80%. Accelerate the construction and improvement of the transport service system, increase the proportion of high-grade operating passenger vehicles to 20%, and achieve video surveillance in more than 70% of the region's Class II passenger stations.
The main goals for 2018 are to strive to secure 20 billion yuan in central investment, strive to complete 68 billion yuan in transportation fixed asset investment, add 6,000 kilometers of newly opened highway mileage, and reach 96,000 kilometers of highway mileage by the end of the year. A total of 5,393 kilometers of national and provincial trunk highways and 6,000 kilometers of rural highways will be newly built or reconstructed.
In 2018, the Regional Department of Transport will start construction of expressways such as the Nagqu to Lhasa section of National Highway 109 and the Qamdo to Bangda Airport section of National Highway 214, as well as new reconstruction projects such as the regional boundary to Gerze section of National Highway 216 and the Sakya Bridge to Sakya County seat section of National Highway 563. Ensure that by the end of 2018 the goal of "90% of townships and 40% of incorporated villages having paved roads" is achieved ahead of schedule. Draft and implement the rural highway construction plan for the next three years, focus on supporting rural highway construction in deeply impoverished areas, and gradually launch projects in 13 townships and 1,152 incorporated villages.
At the same time, in 2018, the level of highway maintenance, management, and emergency response will continue to be improved, the construction of national regional highway transportation emergency equipment and material reserve centers in Lhasa and Qamdo will be completed, and the construction of some city- and prefecture-level highway transportation emergency material reserve centers (stations, points) will be advanced. Vigorously promote the transformation and upgrading of road transport and launch the integrated construction of urban and rural passenger and freight transport. Strengthen audit supervision and apply to include the three projects of Lhasa to Nyingchi, Shigatse Airport to Shigatse City, and Tsetang to Gonggar Airport in the annual audit plan of the Regional Audit Department. Comprehensively advance the construction of a "Credit Transportation Province" and create a credit transportation big data platform.