URUMQI, Jan. 12 -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region plans to invest 8 billion yuan (about 1.13 billion U.S. dollars) in rural road construction and rebuilding in 2024, the regional transportation department said.

This year, as China's largest provincial-level region in terms of landmass, Xinjiang aims to build or rebuild some 5,500 km of roads in the countryside to improve local transportation conditions further.

According to Li Xuedong, deputy director of the regional transportation department, Xinjiang has constructed and upgraded rural roads totaling 7,542 km in 2023.

The official added that a well-connected and widely-covered rural transportation network has been basically formed, with county seats and townships as hubs.

In 2024, Xinjiang plans to invest 68.5 billion yuan in road construction.