Value for money?

However, the plan to rapidly develop the country's highway network has also drawn controversy, as the high costs of construction will be difficult to recover in the short term, especially in western rural areas.

Some experts have even written to the central government over the rapid development of highway construction, expressing concern that the low traffic flow in the central and western areas will bring little return on the investment, according to a report in the China Youth Daily.

Each mile of highway will require 1,000 tons of iron and steel, 9,000 tons of cement, and 1,900 tons of pitch to construct, said the report.

However, many are convinced that there are economic benefits to be made by developing the country's highways. For every 100 million yuan ($15 million) invested in highways, some 3,900 jobs will be created, the report said.

Zeng Peiyan, former vice premier who was in charge of industrial development, said in his book published in March that the development of the western region was go-ing faster than expected, and if infrastructure construction was not advanced enough, it would be difficult to meet the demands of the future.

"Take Xianyang airport as an example. The local authorities used to be questioned for expanding the scale of the airport from a 2-million-passenger flow to 7-million, but when the project was finished, the passenger flow had increased to more than 7 million," Zeng said.

Li Guoli, an employee at the China Communication Construction Company, a State-owned enterprise behind the construction of a number of ports, highways, and railway projects, told the Global Times that transport conditions in the western region were far behind the needs of economic development.

"There are many places in the western region that still do not have highways, which makes it more difficult for the local people to travel," Li said. "For example, there is no highway between Changzhi and Linfen, the coalmine city, which puts a lot of pressure on coal transportation."

Li said that highway construction projects are increasing so rapidly that most of the projects taken on by State-owned enterprises have to be contracted to private companies.

Li said that although it would be impossible to see a return on investment in many western cities' highway projects anytime soon, construction will still be carried out. "The western regions need highways to make travel easier, or it would be impossible for people there to get out of poverty," Li said.

"In the short term, it might be difficult to make profits, but profits are not the top priority for State-owned enterprises sometimes."