Ministry urges more scrutiny of rural roads

The Ministry of Transport has called for stricter quality control of China's rural roads to tackle inadequate management and supervision, which are impeding their overall development, ministry spokesman Wu Chungeng said on Thursday.  

Wu said the large number of widely dispersed construction projects on rural roads has resulted in weak management and insufficient supervision. 

"Local governments fail to fulfill their regulatory responsibilities, leading to lack of funding and supplementary facilities including shelter, drainage systems and security," he said. 

He also noted a lack of new technology and construction professionals and facilities in rural areas. 

To address such problems, the ministry has released a regulation on quality control of rural roads, urging local governments and construction companies to step up construction and maintenance efforts.

The regulation includes a lifelong accountability system that has been applied to other transport projects in China for years. "The ministry will devote equal efforts to investigate and handle quality issues related to rural road projects," Wu said. 

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in November 2012, more than 200,000 kilometers of rural roads have been built or renovated each year, Wu said. 

He said there were 4.01 million km of rural roads in China by the end of last year, accounting for 84 percent of the country's road network. 

He added that 99.4 percent of counties and townships and 98.4 percent of villages have completed work to make road surfaces more robust.