Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality will invest more than 100 billion yuan (US$12.39 billion) in the highway and aquatic transport sectors in the 11th Five-Year Guideline period ending in 2010, China News Service reported yesterday.

Chongqing, the sole municipality in southwest China, hopes to build itself into a transport hub in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the report said, citing Ding Chun, director of the local transport authority.

The city's transit system will be based on its expressway network, take advantage of the Yangtze River "golden waterway," and also be supplemented by railways and air routes.

Last year, high-speed roads built or still under construction had reached most districts and counties of the city, only 3 counties left, it said.

Passenger volume on highways hit more than 600 million in Chongqing last year, and cargo traffic was more than 300 million tons. Its main ports chalked up an annual throughput of 50 million tons in 2005, according to the report.

(Shanghai Daily January 6, 2006)