Holiday toll-free policies

China's municipalities and most of its provinces have rolled out their own versions of the toll-free plan required by the Ministry of Transport for the upcoming eight-day holiday.

By Wednesday, China's four municipalities - Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing - as well as a number of provinces, such as Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong, Hunan and Sichuan, had outlined their toll policies, which will take effect for the first time.

Most of the provinces said highways and bridges will allow free passage by small passenger cars during the longer-than-usual holiday, which includes the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day.

Airport expressways will allow free passage, except in Hubei province, which has ruled that the highway connecting Wuhan's downtown and the airport will continue to collect tolls.

In some regions, regulations are more favorable than the terms set by the transport ministry. In Chongqing, for example, passenger cars and dual-purpose vehicles, such as pickup trucks with seven seats or fewer, will not have to pay tolls.

East China's Jiangxi province has made more flexible regulations. It ruled that cars could still go free if they get stuck in traffic jams on highways on the last night of the holiday when the policy is due to expire.

Only the Tibet autonomous region and Jilin and Hainan provinces have not released their detailed rules yet.

The transport ministry estimated last week that an average of 80.9 million passengers will use the roads every day during the National Day holidays this year, up 8.9 percent compared with last year.

(China Daily 09/27/2012 page1)