East China's Fujian province plans to speed up its expressway network construction, building 1,000 kilometers of new road in five years, Fuzhou Evening News reported on March 1.

Up to 20 expressways with an investment of 29 billion yuan ($4.43 billion) will come under construction this year, including six new projects covering 292 kilometers in total.

In the next five years, Fujian will open expressways from Changle to Fuqing, the southeast part of the Fuzhou bypass expressway, and an expressway connecting Changle to the Pingtan Strait Bridge.

By 2020, the expressway network is expected to reach 6,000 kilometers, with 18 provincial expressways, shortening travel time between the capital city Fuzhou and other cities in the province to within three hours.

During the 12th Five -Year Plan (2011-2015), Fujian invested 40 billion yuan per year on new road construction, completing 58 projects and building 2,750 kilometers of new roads, bring the province’s entire road network up to 5,000 kilometers.