BEIJING, Nov. 20 -- Senior Chinese leader Yu Zhengsheng on Thursday announced the opening of a power grid connecting Tibet and Sichuan.

The 1.08 billion U.S. dollar project links Qamdo in Tibet Autonomous Region and the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze in Sichuan Province, aiming to put an end to the electricity shortages of the 500,000 residents of the Qamdo region and ease power strain in Tibet as a whole.

The complex interconnection circuits stretch 1,521 kilometers across the plateau at an average altitude of 3,850 meters and its construction involved more than 20,000 staff over eight months, according to the State Grid Corporation of China.

Yu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, inspected the power dispatching center under the State Grid before the announcement.