Few cabs were seen on street in a suburban district of southwestern China's Chongqing Municipality on Wednesday morning, as cabbies stopped work to protest against a government plan to increase the number of taxies.

An official in the Yongchuan district government, who declined to be named, confirmed that many cabbies were against the government's plan to raise the number of taxies from the current 300 to 400 in the district with a population of 310,000.

Cab drivers in the main urban zones of Chongqing took on a strike earlier this month, asking the city government to raise taxi fares, increase compressed natural gas (CNG) supplies and crack down on unlicensed cabs.

Cabbies in Yongchuan District, about 60 km west of the city's downtown, did not join that strike.

(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2008)