Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region plans to invest 10 billion yuan (1.25 billion US dollars) in the construction of highways this year, said the region's department of communications.

An official with the department said 8 billion yuan (1 billion dollars) will be earmarked for building 5,200 km of trunk roads and 2 billion yuan (250 million dollars) for 5,500 km of highways in rural areas.

The investment will cover 36 projects, of which 11 are scheduled to open to traffic by the end of this year.

Xinjiang plans to invest 55 billion yuan (6.88 billion dollars) in the construction of highways in the coming five years, the official added.

During the past five years, Xinjiang invested 33 billion yuan (4.1 billion dollars) in highway construction, increasing the total length of highways in the region to nearly 90,000 km.