Beijing to open 264km of Olympic special lanes in late July

    BEIJING, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Lanes for exclusive Olympic use will be in use on Beijing's trunk roads by late July, said an official of the city's Olympics organizing committee.

    The lanes will be in use round-the-clock for 63 days from July 25 to Sept. 25, covering the Olympics and the Paralympic Games, said an official with the transport department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

    The lanes, adding up to 264.16 km, will be on the second, fourth, fifth ring roads, and some freeways connecting Beijing with Badaling Great Wall, the Capital International Airport and Chengde, a popular summer resort in neighboring Hebei Province.

    The special lanes, bearing the colorful Olympic rings logo, all lead to Olympic venues, athletes apartments or reception hotels, the official said, adding that other vehicles than those for Olympic use are required to keep out of the lanes.

    To ease the traffic burden and ensure better air quality during the sports events, Beijing has also committed to imposing traffic bans, in which drivers with even-numbered and odd-numbered license plates, excluding taxis, buses and emergency vehicles, will stay off the roads on alternate dates. The government has promised compensation to the drivers affected.

    According to a report of the municipal Traffic Management Bureau in February, the vehicles in Beijing will reach 3.35 million in August, when the Olympics will be staged. More than 2 million of the vehicles are cars.