China's largest toll-road operator by market value, Zhejiang Expressway (0576), is to invest 500 million yuan (62.5 million US dollars) to build a shopping mall as part of its efforts to diversify, The Standard reported. The mall, occupying between 307,000 and 320,000 square meters, will be built at the Wangdian exit of the Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway. It is scheduled to open by the end of 2008. Designed as a "resting area for drivers," the shopping-center model could be duplicated elsewhere if successful, said the apper, quoting chairman Geng Xiaoping as saying. The company's 51 percent-owned Zhejiang Expressway Investment Development will develop the mall with other investors. The Hangzhou-based company, which operates the Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo and Shangsan expressways, collected 1.34 billion yuan (168 million US dollars) in tolls from the former in the first half , up 10.6 percent from a year earlier.