September 27, 2007 -- By 2010 Sichuan will build a total of 18 roads to neighboring provinces, including Yunnan, Guizhou and Chongqing, reported Huaxi Metropolis News. Journeys to neighboring provincial capitals such as Xi'an, Lanzhou, Guiyang, Kunming and Chongqing will take less than twenty-four hours, and it will also make it possible to complete a roundtrip between Chengdu and other major Sichuan cities within a day.

According to the plan, the four roads to be added in the coming three years are Chengdu-Chongqing Double-track Expressway in 2009 with a total investment of 10.7 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion); Dazhou-Wanzhou Expressway in 2009 with a total investment of 4.5 billion yuan (US$600 million); Luzhou (Hejiang)-Guizhoujie Expressway in 2010 with a total investment of 3.8 billion yuan (US$505 million); Panzhihua-Lijiang (Yunnan) in 2010 with a total investment of 4.2 billion yuan (US$558 million).

Among these, Chengdu-Chongqing Double-track Expressway is the most significant although it has a projected length of just 210 km. The scheduled route is Chengdu â€" Jianyang â€" Lezhi â€" Anyue â€" Dazu â€" Chongqing. Upon completion, it will be the shortest expressway between Chengdu and Chongqing, making the journey time just 2 hours.