China promotes Beidou technology on transport vehicles

Major transportation vehicles in parts of China are now required to use homegrown Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), according to the country's transport authorities Monday.

All tour coaches, long-distance scheduled buses and vehicles for transporting dangerous articles, should install the BDS service when they renew mobile navigation terminals, according to a Ministry of Transport (MOT) conference.

The instruction covers provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Hebei, Shaanxi, Shandong, Hunan and Guizhou, as well as Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Tianjin Municipality.

Heavy trucks and semi-trailers in these regions should install the BDS service when entering the transportation market, said Feng Zhenglin, vice minister of transport.

The ministry aims to have 80 percent of vehicles in these categories installed with the BDS service by the end of March, according to Feng.

Also, all new vehicles in these categories produced in the nine regions should be installed with the BDS service before they leave the factory. Vehicles without the system will not receive transportation permits, he said.

Passenger vehicles in rural areas are also encouraged to install the BDS service, he added.

China plans to build seven application systems and a supporting platform, and install 80,000 Beidou terminals in the nine regions in two years, said Feng.

The BDS began providing services to civilian users in China and surrounding areas in the Asia-Pacific region at the end of last year. It aims to take a share of the GPS-dominated domestic market.

China launched the first satellite for the BDS in 2000 and a preliminary version of the system has been used in traffic control, weather forecasting and disaster relief work on a trial basis since 2003.