Railway to connect 75 pct Xinjiang counties by 2020

URUMQI -- The administrative centers of all prefectures and 75 percent of county-level regions in China's far western Xinjiang region will be connected by rail by 2020, local authorities said Friday.

The plan was revealed in Xinjiang's transport construction blueprint (2016-2030), as China's largest provincial-level region seeks to build itself into a Eurasian transport hub.

By 2020, highways in Xinjiang are expected to reach 10,000 km in total length, connecting all the counties, according to the blueprint released by the autonomous region's government. All villages are to be connected by concrete roads.

Meanwhile, the number of civil airports in the region will reach more than 28, it said.

By 2020, the region will have three major transport routes connecting the neighboring countries of Kazakhstan and Pakistan.