The daily number of passengers using buses in China surged 80 percent this month compared with May, which saw the lowest passenger volume due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

The Ministry of Communications said Friday that daily passenger volume now stands at about 90 percent of that in the same day last year. Cargo transportation has also reached the volume in the same period last year.

The outbreak of SARS in China had a strong impact on road transportation. Statistics showed public road transport passenger volume halved in May compared with the same month of last year.

In north China, the figure for May represented only ten percent of last year's figure, especially in Beijing, where it dropped to only 1 percent.

According to the ministry, cargo road transportation in May also dropped by 25 percent compared to the same period last year.

With the resumption of road travel, the ministry has withdrawn 4,815 temporary checkpoints for sanitation and quarantine which were set up during the SARS period.

The ministry has also stopped some special administrative systems, such as health registration cards for passengers, disinfection certificates for automobiles, and special passes for emergency anti-SARS goods transportation.

Since the outbreak of SARS, a total of 864 million passengers registered their health condition during their road travel. The ministry also issued over 800 special passes and transported 284,000 tons of emergency anti-SARS goods.

The ministry checked nearly 52.5 million automobiles for sanitation and quarantine at the 4,815 temporary checkpoints.

(China Daily July 26, 2003)