East China's Zhejiang Province plans to invest 7.3 billion yuan (US$880 million) this year in building expressways, according to the provincial communications department.

According to the plan, 143 km of expressways will be completed this year.

The province plans to build a total of 2,000 km of expressways over the next five years, then forming an expressway network connecting this provincial capital with other major cities in the province, according to the department.

Zhejiang is also going to build 12 expressways linking it with other Chinese provinces.

To date, 1,500 km of expressways have been completed or are under construction in the province, which built 235 km of expressways last year.

(Xinhua 02/19/2001)