Security officials will be limiting the number of cars entering
Beijing and stepping up vehicle inspections from today until next
Monday in a trial run to prepare for the 2008 Olympic Games.
The move, announced yesterday by the Ministry of Public
Security, is aimed at improving the city's air, easing traffic
congestion and ensuring security.
On Friday and Sunday, only vehicles with license plate numbers
ending with an odd number will be allowed into the city. On
Saturday and Monday, only those with plates ending with even
numbers will be allowed in, the ministry said on its website.
Police, ambulance and postal service vehicles are among those
that will be exempt from the ban. Long-distance buses and vehicles
carrying fresh or live agricultural products will also be allowed
to enter the city, according to the Beijing Traffic Management
Bureau.
The ministry also asked police in Beijing and neighboring
Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning, Shandong and Inner Mongolia to
intensify security checks at traffic checkpoints around the capital
to prevent dangerous vehicles or goods from entering the city.
But it did not elaborate on what vehicles or goods would be
considered unsafe.
The ministry said the move, dubbed the "city moat" project, was
aimed at testing the effectiveness of the Olympic host city's
efforts to ease traffic congestion.
It is also aimed at safeguarding a number of ongoing test events
in the city.
According to the official website of the Beijing Olympic
Organizing Committee, Beijing will host six test events from today
until Monday, ranging from beach volleyball, canoe-slalom, road
cycling, baseball and archery to BMX.
Inside the city, environmental and traffic authorities said that
from Friday until Monday, about 1.3 million vehicles - nearly half
of the 3 million in the city - would be ordered off the roads as
part of pre-Olympics tests. Violators will be fined 100 yuan ($13)
according to law.
The city's public transport will operate at full capacity during
the test period. Rush hour services on the metro system will be
extended to two and a half hours in the morning and to four and a
half hours in the afternoon.
The city will also put an additional 722 buses into service
during the drill. All bus drivers and conductors and at least 95
percent of all taxi drivers are required to be on duty, according
to a detailed plan released on Tuesday.
Du Shaozhong, spokesman for the Beijing environmental protection
bureau, said that air quality would also be monitored during the
reduced-traffic days.
Meanwhile, the city's police bureau has also announced a basket
of measures to ensure the security of the test events.
(China Daily August 16, 2007)