Beijing is planning 15 new express roads that will link its outer ring highways to the city center by 2006 even as it raises parking fees to discourage driving.

The Chinese capital already has more than 2 million vehicles on its streets and the number is set to soar as more people buy cars with their rising incomes. The government has vowed to ease the city's chronic traffic woes at least in time for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Beijing's urban highway system is a series of concentric rings. The 15 new roadways, all without traffic lights, would link the outer rings to the main inner ring, the People's Daily reported Monday on its Web site, quoting Zhou Zhengyu, deputy director of Beijing's transport committee.

The new express roads would be 280 kilometers in total length. In the following year, Beijing was expected to spend 35 billion yuan (US$4.2 billion) to improve traffic, the newspaper reported.

Besides road construction, Beijing would also increase parking fees and improve public transport by adding bus routes, the report said.
 

(Shenzhen Daily November 18, 2003)