A second road across the country's largest desert opened to traffic yesterday, boosting connections to the landlocked regions of the country's northwest.

The 424-km north-south highway across the Taklimakan Desert in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region cuts the distance between the two important regional cities of Hotan and Aral by 550 km and the journey time by about seven hours.

The 790-million-yuan (US$106 million) project is expected to promote cargo and passenger traffic between the resource-rich and densely populated Hotan, in southern Xinjiang, and Aral, an underdeveloped new city on the northern edge of the desert, Xinjiang's Chairman Ismail Tiliwaldi said at the road's official opening ceremony.

Construction of the road, which has been funded by the central government, began in June 2005.

The new highway will provide easier access to the Tibet Autonomous Region as well as central and southern Asian countries such as Pakistan and Tajikistan.

It will also speed up the transportation of farm produce from Hotan to Aksu, a pivotal communications center, by cutting off 430 km and halving the journey time, Ismail said.

The first highway across the Taklimakan, which runs 522 km from Lunnan in the north, to Minfeng county in the south, was opened to traffic in 1995.

However, vehicles bound for Aksu had to make a detour along the westernmost border of the desert.

The Taklimakan desert is located in the center of the Tarim Basin, south of the Tianshan Mountains.