Vice-Premier Huang Ju Sunday called on transportation departments across the country to strengthen coordination of the Spring Festival transportation work to ensure safety of travelers.

At a national transportation conference held here on Sunday, Huang stressed the importance of safety during the Spring Festival travel season, which started on Saturday.

About 2 billion people will travel by rail and bus during the upcoming Spring Festival (Lunar New Year), which falls on Jan. 29, up 3.1 percent over the corresponding period of last year, putting a great pressure on the country's strained transportation facilities, as the holiday is the most important occasion for family Reunion.

Addressing the meeting, Huang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, urged the transportation departments to promote the overall and sustained development of the sector based on the implementation of the scientific concept.

He praised the achievements scored by the sector during the country's 10th Five-Year plan period (2001-2005).

He also called on the transportation departments to contribute to building socialist new countryside by building more roads and highways in rural areas, old revolutionary bases, areas inhabited by ethnic minority people and border areas so as to help poor people lift out of poverty.

The construction of state highway network should be stepped up and emergency responding plans dealing with waterway transportation accidents should be further improved to ensure the safety of people's life and properties, the vice-premier said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2006)