LHASA -- The postal service sector in Southwest China's Xizang autonomous region saw steady growth in parcels handled in 2024, according to the region's postal administration.

The regional postal service volume surged to 202.9 million parcels last year, up 5.88 percent year on year, according to the latest data from the administration.

The income of the postal service reached 1.2 billion yuan (about $167 million), a year-on-year increase of 19.06 percent. Of that total, revenue from the region's express services came in at 812 million yuan, up 22.4 percent year on year, the data shows.

Behind these booming delivery services are decades of efforts to improve livelihoods and transportation in Xizang, the only provincial-level region in China where road construction is fully funded by the central government.

Data from regional government's information office shows that China's central government invested 325.1 billion yuan in road construction in the mountain-locked region from 1953 to 2023. The total length of roads open to traffic stood at 123,300 kilometers by the end of 2023, with paved roads accessing 666 townships and 4,596 administrative villages.