Beijing mulls vehicle congestion charges

Beijing is researching a plan to levy congestion charges on vehicles, and will collect public opinions, an official from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport said Tuesday.

Rong Jun, a member of the commission, made the remarks at a press conference on environmentally friendly traffic, but did not release any details of the plan.

According to Rong, the Chinese capital will learn from experiences in London and Singapore on collecting congestion charges, saying these strategies could relieve congestion to improve traffic efficiency, which will reduce emissions.

The capital currently has 5.35 million vehicles, which consume over 4 million tons of gasoline and more than 2 million tons of diesel annually, said Li Kunsheng, an official in charge of vehicle emission management with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection.

Annual vehicle emissions create about 900,000 tons of pollutants and contain 77,000 tons of hydrocarbons and over 80,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, according to Li.

"Vehicle emissions have been proven to contain over 100 kinds of carcinogenic substances. Even worse, the emissions are discharged at low altitudes, which may affect people's health more directly," Li said.

A report from the Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed that vehicle exhaust has topped industrial emissions to become Beijing's top source of air pollution.

Beijing unveiled a package of anti-pollution measures early this month, including cutting vehicle emissions and curbing industrial pollution.