OREANDA-NEWS. Anhui province aims to hike the urbanization rate to 48 percent this year from 46.5 percent in 2012, the provincial housing and urban-rural development department said.

The province will follow a new urbanization pattern in which urbanization comes together with industrialization, urban expansion is balanced with rural development and environmental protection keeps up with economic growth.

In a bid to meet the target, the province will ramp up efforts to expand urban infrastructure. It plans to build 1,100-km-long sewage pipelines and household garbage treatment plants with a combined capacity of 1,200 tonnes per day, according to an official of the department.

Construction will start on 400,000 government-funded apartments, 62.5 percent of which are expected to be completed by the end of this year.