Authorities in Chongqing, China's fourth largest city, announced on Wednesday that all the 9,000 urban cab drivers had returned to work after a two-day strike.

Cui Jian, deputy secretary-general of the municipal government, blamed the municipal traffic administration at a press conference on Wednesday for poor management of taxi service and said it held responsible for the strike.

The official said relevant officials would face "due punishment".

The streets of downtown Chongqing appeared to be back to normal on Wednesday morning, with taxies cruising on busy streets.

One driver told Xinhua that his company manager had sent text messages to the drivers, telling them to "put on the roof sign and do business as usual".

Almost 4,000 drivers had returned to work by Tuesday afternoon after the municipal government moved to address their grievances.

The city government has promised to reduce the fees that drivers pay to their companies, increase CNG supplies and step up efforts to crack down unlicensed cabs, to meet the demands of cab drivers.

Cab companies also promised to pay for losses incurred during the strike and exempt drivers from daily fees in a move to get drivers back to work.

The municipal government would also step up supervision of cab companies, said Cui.

Cab drivers showed support of the government's policies, which they hoped would be faithfully implemented.

"So long as there is a sound business environment, we will cherish our job and do our best," said a cab driver working for the Guotai Taxi Limited Company, who only gave his surname as Xiao.

Drivers in the city's main streets stopped working on Monday morning to protest a number of issues, including insufficient supplies of compressed natural gas (CNG), which fuels most cabs in the city, competition from unlicensed cabs, high fines for traffic violations and the unfair division of fares between drivers and companies.

Drivers must wait for one to three hours to refill their CNG due to a limited number of fuel stations.

The strike became violent as some strikers gathered on business streets to stop working cabs and pull out the drivers.

At least three police cars were also smashed in the violence.

(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2008)