BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Senior Chinese leader Yu Zhengsheng on Wednesday attended the inauguration ceremony of an expressway in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Yu, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, is in Tibet for celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the autonomous region.

The new highway linking Lhasa, capital of Tibet, and Nyingchi in Dagze County is expected to help tourism, assist regional industrial transformation as well as preserve border stability and bolster ethnic unity.

Construction of the new highway began in 2013. Total investment in the project is estimated at 38 billion yuan (about 5.97 billion U.S. dollars).