China's road building results in 4.1 million kilometres built in 2012

AS of end 2012, China's road building programme resulted in a total of 4.1 million kilometres of road and highways being built, reports Xinhua.

Transport Minister Yang Chuantang said at a recent transportation conference that a record-breaking sum of 87,000 kilometres' new roads were built last year, 15,000 kilometres more than in 2011. New expressways took up 11,000 kilometres. New and upgraded rural roads totalled 194,000 kilometres.

For solutions to the shortage of capital for road projects, the transport and finance ministries will set up an exclusive fund of CNY454.4 billion (US$72.93 billion) from the vehicle purchasing tax, port construction fee and fuel consumption tax.

The two ministries have also issued a vehicle purchasing tax target of CNY122.8 billion for 2013 and will issue more government bonds and widen its participation in the debt market.