As a metropolis possessing the most buses using clean fuel around the world, Beijing will spend 2.8 billion yuan (US$345 million) this year to increase the number of environmentally friendly buses.

An official from Beijing Public Transport Holdings Ltd (BPT) said on Wednesday that the money will be used to buy 3,485 such buses, bringing the total number of buses in the city to 20,427 by the end of this year.

These new buses will include 1,000 powered by natural gas, 200 Euro-4 emission standard diesel vehicles, 2,185 Euro-3 emission standard diesel vehicles and 100 double-energy-source electric buses, said Feng Xingfu, BPT deputy general manager.

The number of environmentally friendly buses in Beijing is expected to hit 13,252 at the end of the year, accounting for 64.9 per cent of the city's total, Feng said.

In a bid to help rein in pollution, BPT aims to bringing in more "green" buses, he said.

Last year, the capital invested 3 billion yuan (US$370 million) in either buying new buses or helping install new technology to cut emissions. In that way, the city accelerates its pace of green public transportation by introducing more buses and cabs using compressed natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas, Feng said.

Statistics show that by the end of May last year, Beijing had 17,507 public vehicles in service, a big proportion of which were obsolete diesel or electric buses. Some outdated vehicles were abandoned or replaced in the latter half of last year.

BPT handles 4.36 billion trips a year on its mainly surface public transport system, and its annual mileage is 1.45 billion kilometres, Feng said. The system accounts for more than 82 per cent of Beijing's public transport.

Currently, the company has 27 subordinate units 11 of which are branch companies, six wholly owned subsidiaries, six shareholding subsidiaries and four affiliated institutions.

According to Zhang Guifang, a BPT publicity official, Beijing will add 5,000 buses by the end of 2010, bringing the total number of operating vehicles of various kinds to 24,000.

During the period, the rate of investment on Beijing's transport infrastructure will be elevated to 50 per cent from the current 35 per cent, she said.

Liu Xiaoming, deputy director of the Beijing Transportation Committee, said that by the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games' opening ceremony, the city will upgrade all its diesel buses so that their discharge meets or undercuts the standard.

By then, all the operating buses in the city will meet the Euro 3 emission standard, he said.

Zhu Mingshu, a sophomore at China Women's University, said that since she arrived in Beijing, she has enjoyed taking buses as they are cleaner and more comfortable than ever.

"I hope more environmentally friendly buses come to upgrade the city's image and help Beijing's Olympic Games," she said. "Also, more buses using clean fuels will help lower pollution and are beneficial to people's health."

Li Zhichen, a teacher at the University of International Business and Economics, said: "I am fully confident that Beijing's air will become much cleaner with the introduction of more vehicles using clean energy."

According to Beijing Vice-Mayor Liu Zhihua, vehicle emissions, the burning of coal as an energy source in winter and dust from construction sites are the leading environmental problems in the capital.

The municipal government has been following an environmental protection plan for the 2003-07 period, aiming to ensure an ideal environment for the Games, he said.

(China Daily 05/19/2006 page5)