BEIJING - Chinese passengers made 8.83 billion road trips and 53.7 million trips on water routes in the first quarter of this year, increasing 8.8 percent and 3.4 percent respectively on last year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Communications (MOC) released on Friday.

As of March 22, road accidents in China have killed 207 people this year, the MOC said.

Meanwhile, China's road network delivered 7.05 billion tons of goods during the January-March period, while 1.01 billion tones had been transported through water routes, the MOC said.

Fixed assets investment on the road and waterway communications infrastructure totaled 185.4 billion yuan ($29.4 billion) during this period, down 7.7 percent on last year, according to the MOC.

Regarding challenges for the industry, the ministry said construction in transportation systems will face increasing financial difficulties. Rising oil prices will drive up operation costs in the industry, as around 60 percent of the country's refined oil usage is consumed in the network.